§ Mrs. Iris RobinsonTo ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland how many jobs were lost in the textile industry in Northern Ireland in the last three years. [142251]
§ Mr. PearsonOver the three year period to December 2003, there were 5,014 redundancies in the textile industry in Northern Ireland confirmed to the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Investment. The latest figures from the Quarterly Employment Survey (QES), which can be used to estimate the net change in the employee jobs level overall, show that over the three year period, June 2000 to June 2003, there was a net increase of 27,230 (4.3 per cent.) in all employee jobs giving a total of 667,610 employee jobs.