SINN Féin MLA Maeve McLaughlin has called for a new jobs creation strategy for Derry to be included in Invest NI’s corporate plan.
She made the call after uncovering just how few jobs Invest NI has created in Derry this past year.
And it comes hard on the heels of recent announcements of well over 100 jobs going across the city, which will be a major blow to the Derry economy.
They include:
* 48 voluntary redundancies at Invista;
* scores of jobs under threat at Derry suicide prevention charity Lifeline;
* 18 jobs lost following closure of urban regeneration company ILEX;
* 15 jobs boing at Hunter Apparel;
* and 14 jobs lost at Seagate.
The Foyle MLA said this evening: “I asked the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Investment (DUP MLA Jonathan Bell) for a breakdown of the jobs created in Derry in 2014-15.
“In response I discovered that 675 of the 803 jobs created were in the former Derry City Council area.
“The majority of these jobs were in the business sector while others were also in local business start-ups, computer software and services, construction, the creative sector and other areas.
“In an area of high unemployment such as Derry we need to see many more jobs created in order to transform the economy.
“Invest NI needs to include a new jobs creation strategy for Derry in its corporate plan and needs to put a more focused effort into targeting unemployment in the city.”