The problems of the North's clothing and textile sectors caused an overall drop of 555 in the number of people employed last year in companies supported by the Industrial Development Board (IDB).

The net job loss was due to 1,968 redundancies in textiles and clothing, which outweighed gains made elsewhere. There was a gain of 1,196 jobs in tradeable services and of 235 jobs in manufacturing jobs other than textiles and clothing. The IDB said in its end-of-year report that total investment committed amounted to £266 million sterling (€403.58 million) in the year to the end of March 1999, down from the previous year's £713 million. The main reason for the decline was that expansion investments from existing firms contracted sharply, with existing multinational clients investing £106 million in 17 expansions, compared to £503 million in 33 expansions the previous year. Investment by indigenous firms also fell. But the amount of investment promised by 79 new projects totalled £33 million, up from £27 million last year.

The IDB said that the projects it had decided to support during the year involved 5,434 jobs and would safeguard a further 2,931. Software and telecommunications services were the main contributors. Not all of these would have come on stream in the IDB's financial year to the end of March and, therefore, would not register as newly-created jobs.

The board's chairman, Dr Alan Gillespie, said a reduction in investment by existing companies indicated a more cautious approach was being taken due to global uncertainty, sterling's strength, the slowdown in the British and European economies "and the shocks in international stock markets suffered from meltdown in Asia-Pacific and the financial crisis in Russia". The IDB's chief executive, Mr Bruce Robinson, said there had been continued growth in exports and that the average cost per job to the IDB was £7,890 in the past year, compared to £13,600 in the previous 12 months.