A step decline in the housing market and the associated construction industry is having an impact on Northern Ireland's levels of unemployment.

The construction industry accounted for approximately 60% of the September increase.

Commenting on the figures, NI Economy Minister Arlene Foster said: "The latest labour market figures show some further increases in unemployment. While this is disappointing, it is not entirely unexpected.

"The slow-down in the housing market and wider construction industry in particular is having a large impact, with former construction workers accounting for the majority of the rise in benefit claimants during September," she said.

However, while losses are most significant in that sector, there has only been a slight overall increase in unemployment in Northern Ireland, with the rate remaining below the UK and European Union average.

New figures published today show that the Northern Ireland seasonally adjusted unemployment rate was estimated at 4.3% for the period June to August 2008.

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This represented a slight increase from the rate of 4.1% recorded last quarter and was also higher than the rate of 3.7% recorded in the same period one year ago.

The rate remained below the UK average (5.7%) and was also lower than the European Union (6.8%) and Republic of Ireland (5.9%) rates for July 2008.

Seasonally adjusted estimates for the same period showed that there were 788,000 people in employment in Northern Ireland.

This represented a fall of 0.9% in employment levels over the quarter, but a rise of 1.5% over the year.

The number of people claiming unemployment related benefits increased by 1,200 during the latest month to 28,900 in September 2008.

This represented the largest single monthly increase in unemployed claimants in over 20 years (since April 1986).

Again though, a Ministerial target has been missed as the Northern Ireland's rate of economic inactivity remained considerably higher than the UK average rate (20.9%) and was the highest of the UK regions.

The latest seasonally adjusted working age economic inactivity rate in Northern Ireland (26.7%) increased from the figure of 26.2% recorded for the previous quarter.

Also revealed is news that output from Northern Ireland's service sector fell in the second quarter of 2008, although production output increased over the quarter and the year.

Reflecting on the Index of Production and Index of Services, Stormont Minister Arlene Foster also said: "This was the fourth consecutive quarter in which we have seen a decline in business activity in private sector services.

"Most of this has been driven by falling sales in the wholesale, retail and business services and finance sectors during the second quarter of the year.

"We cannot expect to be immune from the dramatic changes in the financial markets. Business and consumer confidence has also undoubtedly been affected by price rises and economic uncertainty," she commented.

(BMcC)