Derry redundancies shock - 4,346 ‘confirmed’ layoffs since 2000

One in every ten ‘confirmed’ redundancies across the North since January 2000 has been in the Derry area, the ‘Journal’ can reveal.

Startling new government statistics point to more than 4,300 lay-offs in the district in the past ten-and-a-half years.

The shocking number of redundancies in the Derry area since 2000 is brought into sharp focus when viewed in the context of redundancy levels in other areas of the North.

Whereas there were 4,346 ‘confirmed’ lay-offs in the Derry district over this period - that’s 10.2% of the overall total for the North (42,638) - there were only seven in the North Antrim district of Moyle.

In the last six months alone, there have been 128 lay-offs in the Derry City Council district - that’s about 15% of the 838 overall total for the North.

The most up-to-date statistics - which are contained in the latest monthly labour market report published by the North’s Department of Enterprise, Trade and Investment (DETI) - record the distribution of confirmed redundancies by district council area.

The largest number of lay-offs so far this year was in the Belfast area (289), with Derry (128), Newry and Mourne (78) and Newtownabbey (71) not too far behind.

In comparison, over the same six month period, there were zero redundancies in the Coleraine, Cookstown, Down, Limavady, Moyle, Omagh and Strabane districts.

DETI has also revealed that it has been notified of a further 931 ‘outstanding’ redundancies - a breakdown of their exact location hasn’t been published - which, it says, are ‘proposed but not confirmed.’

Meanwhile, in the neighbouring towns of Strabane and Limavady, the situation may not appear as bleak but, nonetheless, makes equally depressing reading.

In the Strabane district, since 2000, there have been 1,166 lay-offs with just over 1,500 in Limavady.

The worst year for confirmed redundancies in the Derry area was 2003 when there were 906 lay-offs; 2007 recorded the lowest number of lay-offs over the specified ten-and-a-half year period at 57.

The Belfast City Council area tops the North’s redundancy league with just over 9,200 lay-offs - that’s just under 22% - between 2000 and last month.