THE claimant count in Northern Ireland is almost double the number recorded in March 2020 and has risen to levels last seen in 2014, according to latest labour market statistics.
In March the number of people out of work in the region was 58,100, or 5.9 per cent of the workforce.
That is a decrease of 100 from the previous month’s figure and 8.9 per cent below the recent peak in May last year, before the furlough scheme properly kicked in, but is nearly twice the number 13 months ago.
Some 10,090 redundancies were proposed in the 12 months to the end of March, more than double the number recorded in the previous twelve months (4,800).
And in March alone, 250 redundancies were confirmed, taking the annual total to 5,780, the highest since 2001.
But the number of people on Northern Ireland payrolls rose marginally over the month to 744,300 but is down 1.2% per cent over the year.
The NI Statistics and Research Agency said an average of 115,000 people were on furlough every day in January and February - well below levels of 139,000 recorded at the start of July 2020, the first month for which daily counts are available.
Meanwhile the region's unemployment rate increased over both the quarter and the year to 3.7 per cent - the second lowest in the UK - but economic inactivity, at 28.3 per cent, is the UK's highest.
The data overall revealed that, for Northern Ireland, employment levels (which include furloughed jobs) remain below pre-covid levels, while measures of unemployment remain above pre-covid levels.
In the UK as a whole, the number of workers on payrolls fell for the first time in four months in March, but job vacancies surged as businesses prepared to reopen after lockdown, official figures have shown.
There were further signs that the overall jobs sector is stabilising, with the first quarterly fall in the unemployment rate since 2019 between December and February and statistics signalling a near-16 per cent jump in vacancies in March.
Darren Morgan, director of economic statistics at the ONS, said: "The latest figures suggest that the jobs market has been broadly stable in recent months after the major shock of last spring.
"The number of people on payroll fell slightly in March after a few months of growth.
"There are, though, over 800,000 fewer employees than before the pandemic struck, and with around five million people employed but still on furlough, the labour market rem
