- According to the most recent figures, Derry City and Strabane has the lowest employment rate of all council areas in Northern Ireland (64.0%).
- This is 4 percentage points lower than the next lowest council area (Causeway Coast and Glens, 68.0%). The figure for NI overall is 74.3%.
- The latest data (2023-24) for the destination of school leavers shows that Derry City and Strabane actually had the third-lowest proportion (37.6%) of school leavers heading into Higher Education, not the second lowest, behind Armagh City, Banbridge and Craigavon (36.1%) and Causeway Coast and Glens (36.4%).
- Across Northern Ireland, 40.3% of school leavers moved into Higher Education.
In a 21 April article for the Belfast Telegraph, journalist and policy expert Paul Gosling claimed that:
“Derry has Northern Ireland’s lowest employment rate alongside the second-lowest proportion of school leavers going into higher education.”
There are two aspects to this claim:
- Derry/Londonderry has the lowest employment rate in NI.
- It also has the second-lowest proportion of school leavers moving into Higher Education.
The first aspect is supported by evidence.
The latest figures for employment by local authority area cover the calendar year of 2024. Derry City and Strabane is the district with the lowest employment rate at 64.0% – 4 percentage points (pp) lower than the second-lowest area (Causeway Coast and Glens, 68.0%) and over 10pp lower than the overall NI employment rate (74.3%).
The second aspect is slightly inaccurate.
According to the latest data, covering 2023-24, Derry City and Strabane is the local authority with the third-lowest proportion (37.6%) of school leavers moving into Higher Education.
Proportions in the districts of Armagh City, Banbridge and Craigavon (36.1%) and Causeway Coast and Glens (36.4%) are both lower, while the overall NI rate is higher (40.3%).
For more information, read on.
FactCheckNI contacted Mr Gosling about this claim. Regarding employment figures, he pointed us to the Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency’s (NISRA) Labour Market Report – specifically, the 2024 annual figures (this is the most recent year for which there is an annual report with full analysis). He also stated that:
“I generally quote employment rate rather than unemployment rate as it provides a more relevant guide to productivity capacity and recognises that, especially in NI, we have a substantial level of what might be termed ‘hidden unemployment’, which is economic inactivity. There is a high negative correlation between economic inactivity and qualifications.”
For more information on the differences between figures for employment, unemployment and economic inactivity, read this article.
Regarding the destinations of school leavers, he pointed us to the NISRA publication Qualifications and Destinations of Northern Ireland School Leavers 2021-22.
Official statistics for employment rates for NI broken down by local authority area can be found in the annual Labour Market Report, which is based on analysis of the quarterly Labour Force Surveys.
NISRA also publishes monthly Labour Market Reports, the most recent of which covers April this year, but these are less comprehensive than the annual publications and do not include employment figures broken down by local government area.
The most recent quarterly update on Labour Force Surveys was published in February. It is accompanied by the most up-to-date published annual data (covering 2024) for employment rates for local government districts.
Bear in mind that, because this data is broken down by council area, the figures in question are for Derry City and Strabane district rather than the city of Derry/Londonderry specifically.
The data indicates that not only does Derry City and Strabane have the lowest total employment rate (64.0%) of any of Northern Ireland’s local authority areas, it is the lowest by four percentage points (below the Causeway Coast and Glens on 68.0%) and over 10pp below the overall Northern Ireland employment rate (74.3%).
Furthermore, it has the lowest employment rate for both males and females. The figures are laid out in the table below:
Figure 1 – source: NISRA
This provides good evidence in support of the first part of the claim.
What about higher education?
Mr Gosling cited NISRA’s annual report (for 2021-22) on school leavers as his source for the claim that Derry/Londonderry has the second-lowest proportion of school leavers going into higher education.
As with employment figures, the localised data covers Derry City and Strabane in comparison with NI’s other ten local authority areas, rather than the city of Derry/Londonderry specifically.
However, the report noted by Mr Gosling is not actually the latest annual bulletin on school leavers. Instead, a more recent 2023-24 edition was published last May.
According to data accompanying Qualifications and Destinations of Northern Ireland School Leavers 2023-24, Derry City and Strabane actually has the third lowest proportion of school leavers moving into Higher Education – behind the districts of Armagh City, Banbridge and Craigavon, and also Causeway Coast and Glens – rather than the second lowest (which was the case in 2021-22). This data can be seen in the table below:
Figure 2 – source: NISRA
Based on this evidence, this second aspect of Mr Gosling’s claim is not quite right. The Derry/Londonderry figures for school leavers moving into Higher Education are still towards the lower end of scale and the Derry City and Strabane rate (37.6%) is almost 3pp below the NI average (40.3%).
The total proportion of school leavers heading into Higher Education in 2023-24 was around 3pp lower for both Derry City and Strabane (37.6% vs 40.3%) and for Northern Ireland overall (40.3% vs 43.7%) compared with 2021-22.