Northern Ireland Unemployment Rises Again

It has been announced that the number of unemployed people in Northern Ireland rose again in May.  The number of people claiming jobless benefits has now gone up by 15.4% in the past year and last month Northern Ireland was the only region within the UK to experience a rise in the number of people out of work.

Citizens Advice has also seen an increase in the number of people coming to its offices with queries relating to Jobseekers Allowance (JSA), the main unemployment benefit.  In 2009/10 the number of JSA queries increased by over 22% to 6,733 enquiries.  Coupled with this the organisation saw a 42% increase to 3,333 in redundancy queries during 2009 compared with the same 12 month period in 2008.

In these difficult economic times more and more people are facing redundancy or have lost their jobs and it is important for anyone in this situation to seek advice and information about their rights and entitlements.  Information and advice on benefits, debt and employment issues is available from local CAB offices across Northern Ireland and fact sheets on redundancy, lay-off and short-time working are also available for download from the publications section of the CAB website at www.citizensadvice.co.uk/en/publications.