Unemployment Issues Increase Again

Unemployment has again risen in Northern Ireland with the last 12 months having seen an increase of 90% in those people who are now out of work. July alone saw another 1,500 lost jobs with the jobless total now standing at 51,000, 6.7% of the working population.

This position is reflected in the number of enquiries and issues now being dealt with by bureaux, which is another indicator of the current economic climate. In the 4 months from April to June this year CAB offices across Northern Ireland dealt with over 5,700 new employment issues, along with nearly 12,300 relating to debt. This continues to place a growing strain on advisers who in turn are having to address a significantly increasing work load of more complex cases without a corresponding increase in resources being made available to them.

It is testament to advisers, volunteers and other support staff within bureaux that clients are still being seen and professionally advised during these very difficult times of financial constraint.