THE jobless total in Northern Ireland has fallen dramatically. The figures for October show a drop of 3,300 in unemployment compared to September. The jobless total is now 82,500, 10.7 per cent of the workforce.
The sharp reduction in unemployment has been attributed to a number of factors including students returning to full time education, a clamp down on fraud, and the new job seeker's allowance which requires welfare claimants to prove they are available for work.
This is one of the highest ever falls in unemployment in Northern Ireland. But the North's economy minister, Baroness Denton, warned against people being too optimistic about future trends based on one month's figures.
"It is never wise to look at one month's figures in isolation, and the next few months will be the guide to whether this is pointing to a brighter future for the people of Northern Ireland sooner than we had all hoped," she added.
Baroness Denton said the unemployment reduction had been most marked in west and north Belfast, two jobs blackspots.
Politicians generally welcomed the figures. Mr Roy Begg, the Ulster Unionist Party employment spokesman, said it was "excellent news" for Northern Ireland.
"We must continue our work to attract more investment and more real jobs in Northern Ireland. To this end the most important action must be for the IRA to call an unequivocal, permanent ceasefire without delay," he said.
Mr Tom Gillen, of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions in the North, expressed suspicion about the figures. He said the real unemployment total was far higher than recorded in the latest British government figures.
Mr Gillen claimed the figures had been doctored to present figures favourable to the British government.
. Unemployment in Britain as a whole is poised to fall below the crucial two million mark in the New Year, providing a substantial boost for Mr John Major's re election campaign, writes Sebastian Taylor. Latest figures disclose a 40,800 reduction in jobless numbers to 2,030,000 last month, the lowest unemployment rate since early 1991.
Last month's reduction was inflated by the decision of several thousand people not to sign on for the much more stringent "jobseekers' allowance" replacement for unemployment benefit because the have off the card jobs in the cash economy. Even so, the average monthly fall in jobless numbers has been between 15,000 and 20,000 over the past year indicating the total unemployment figures, will fall below two million in January or February.
The tightening labour market is reflected in a further increase in unfilled vacancies at Jobcentres to the highest levels for more than five years. So far, though, labour shortages are not contributing to the cost push inflation predicted by the Bank of England for many months.
After the summer's slight increase in the rate of average earnings growth, last month's figures show that the year on year increase in average earnings was unchanged at 4 per cent.
