The North's jobless total fell to its lowest level on record in the first quarter of the year, according to figures from the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Investment in Belfast.

The seasonally adjusted numbers show that 5.1 per cent of the North's workforce was unemployed between January and March.

This represented a drop of 0.6 percentage points on the previous quarter and a fall of 0.9 points over the year.

The figures also show that almost 34,000 people - 4.2 per cent of the workforce - were registered to claim unemployment benefit last month, bringing the claimant rate to its lowest point since 1975.

There was positive news on the other side of the jobs picture too, with 47,000 more people working in April than in the same month a year earlier. At the same time, the number of people who did not want a job fell by 19,000 to 448,000.

Mr Ian Pearson, the Northern Ireland Office minister with responsibility for employment welcomed the numbers.

"Falling unemployment plus high employment levels are encouraging signs that the Northern Ireland economy is performing robustly in the face of uncertainty," Mr Pearson said.

He added that employment potential remains strong in the North.

Mr Philip McDonagh, chief economist with PricewaterhouseCoopers in Belfast, said he was "cautiously optimistic" about the chances of North Ireland's unemployment rate declining further in the future.

In the near term, however, it is likely that the jobless and claimant rates will creep higher, as the impact of a rash of recent textiles job losses is felt.

Already, areas such as Derry, and Strabane - the locations that have borne the brunt of the textiles downturn - have claimant rates of 5 per cent or more.

Mr McDonagh is expecting economic growth to pick up slightly across the North this year as public spending stimulates activity. - (Additional reporting, Reuters)