THE number of people claiming unemployment benefits across Belfast fell in July, according to the latest figures released by the Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency (NISRA).
Across the city, there were 14,315 people claiming unemployment benefits in July 2021 compared to 16,420 during the same period last year, representing a decrease of over 2100 claimants.
North Belfast continues to have the highest number of claimants with 4,560 people claiming unemployment benefits, which is a decrease of 460 compared to July 2020 and a decrease of 40 when compared to June of this year.
Another positive set of Northern Ireland labour market statistics from @NISRA. Unemployment still under 4% at 3.8% (UK 4.7%) in Q2 2021. HMRC payrolls data up again in July by 1.1% m/m to 762,596. That’s a big surge of +7,927 in 1 month as economy continued to reopen.
— Richard Ramsey (@Ramseconomics) August 17, 2021
Figures for West Belfast show that from July 2020 there has been a decrease of 860 claimants with figures now standing at 3,885, down 25 claimants from June of this year.
The number claiming unemployment benefits in the east of the city has fallen by 285 on the previous year and currently sits at 2710.
South Belfast has seen a decrease of 500 people claiming unemployment benefits with the data showing 3160 people claiming unemployment benefits in the constituency.
When compared to June this year, South Belfast is the only constituency in the city to see a slight increase in claimants with 15 more people in the area claiming unemployment benefits when compared to June 2021.
The August Labour Market Report published today contains indicators from the Labour Force Survey, Claimant Count, HMRC Payroll, and Redundancies. https://t.co/Jhci1PIJWW pic.twitter.com/geF8kYOjl5
— NISRA (@NISRA) August 17, 2021
Across the North there are currently 50,000 people claiming unemployment benefits, representing 5.1 per cent of the workforce, which is a decrease of 800 (1.5 per cent) from the previous month’s revised figure. The July claimant count is 22 per cent below the recent peak in May 2020, and 64 per cent higher than the pre-pandemic count in March 2020.
850 redundancies were proposed during July 2021, taking the total number of proposed collective redundancies in the past twelve months to 6,090, nearly a third less than the number recorded in the previous twelve months (8,790).
During July 2021, 250 redundancies were confirmed, taking the annual total to 5,750. This annual total was 81 per cent higher than in the previous year (3,180).
The latest figures are released against the background of a series of job announcements with Springfield Road-based Innovation Factory announcing the creation of 57 new jobs and US-based workforce management company Workrise revealing that they are to set up an engineering centre in the North creating 153 jobs.
