North braced for 3,000 job losses

Nearly 3,000 people are expected to lose their jobs in Northern Ireland, the North's Enterprise Minister Ian Pearson has said.

Official figures show a slight rise last month in the number of people out of work and claiming benefit.

However the manufacturing sector expected to be hit by substantial job losses in coming months.

"With nearly 3,000 redundancies in the pipeline, it is clear that there is the possibility of further unemployment increases in the coming months,'' Mr Pearson warned yesterday.

A slow-down in manufacturing in the north has seen output slump to 9% below the highpoint in early 2001.