Northern Ireland is likely to escape a massive wave of job losses, which is expected to hit the UK in the last quarter of this year, according to the latest Confederation of British Industry regional survey. The CBI estimates a further 30,000 manufacturing jobs will be lost in the fourth quarter across all regions of the UK except Northern Ireland and the south-west.

The largest number of redundancies are expected to come from the south-east but, in percentage terms, the east, the north west and Scotland will see larger declines. Although the North may avoid major job losses the survey shows export optimism in the region has slumped. Business confidence, already affected by the global slowdown, had been further depressed by the terrorist attacks on the US, the CBI said.