§ Mr. DoddsTo ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland how many jobs have(a) been created and (b) disappeared in Northern Ireland in the last five years. [113580]
§ Mr. PearsonAn exact figure for the number of jobs created and disappeared in the period requested is not available. However, figures from the Quarterly Employment Survey (QES) can be used to estimate the net change in the employee job level in the last five years. The latest seasonally adjusted figures from the QES show that between December 1997 and December 2002 there was a net increase of 54,470 ( + 9.0 per cent.) employee jobs in Northern Ireland.
Over the five year period to May 2003, there were 23,951 redundancies in Northern Ireland confirmed to the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Investment.