2% of NI manufacturing base lost in four days

Stormont Employment Minister Reg Empey says the North has lost 2% of its entire manufacturing base over the past four days.

The public sector dominates the employment market in the North, meaning every manufacturing job in the private sector is even more important.

However, nearly 1,000 lay-offs have been announced by Bombardier in Belfast this week, along with 210 job cuts at Visteon and further redundancies at Nortel and FG Wilson.

First Minister Peter Robinson is promising that the power-sharing Executive will do all it can to find new jobs for those facing unemployment.