Northern Ireland's unemployment rate is persistently above the average for the 15 European Union member states, surpassed only by Spain, Finland and the Republic of Ireland. Nor is this heavy burden evenly distributed.
Catholic males remain more than twice as likely to be unemployed as their Protestant counterparts.
The fact that Northern Ireland is the UK region with the highest proportion of individuals who leave school without any formal qualifications has important implications for long-term unemployment. And closer scrutiny, by ward, reveals variation from 4.1 per cent in Hillsborough, north Down, to almost 50 per cent in the west Belfast wards of Falls and Whiterock. Worse still, a narrow focus on official unemployment data excludes the large number of people who have given up the search for employment. Yet the rise in 'economic inactivity' in Northern Ireland over the past two decades has been even greater than the rise in unemployment. Clearly, lack of employment is one of the most serious economic and social problems facing Northern Ireland, and the inequalities generated by the shortfall have important political implications.