The year 2009 was a bad year for Northern Ireland in terms of Job creation and job losses and saw the government accused of 'spinning' the unemployment figures.

At the end of September 2009 the official headline jobless figure for Northern Ireland was 52,700 but commentators suggest that almost as many people again are not on the unemployment register but would like to work, which would bring the total number of people in Northern Ireland seeking jobs to just over 100,000, almost double the official figure.

Several months have passed since this figure was released and many more have joined the dole queue, it is therefore of concern that at the start of 2010 job creation and optimism is low, job losses continue to grow and the Job Centres - Can't find work either!

A Snap Shot of Job Centre Online a short while ago showed that they had only 929 vacancies advertised for the whole of Northern Ireland, 929 vacancies for well over 50,000 unemployed people and a further look at the jobs advertised on the site showed that out of these 929 vacancies, not an insignificant amount were self employed roles, which offered no salary.

Is 2010 going to be doom and gloom for the jobless in Northern Ireland, if so, come the General and Assembly Elections we may have to hold those responsible to account and add them to the jobless total.

Last Updated: 13th January 2010