FIFTEEN THOUSAND jobs in the North are under threat this year, Employment Minister Sir Reg Empey warned yesterday.

Sir Reg expects unemployment to climb to as high as 50,000 by 2010. The Minister’s warnings on the unemployment front came as a fresh economic report suggested job losses in Northern Ireland will top more than 16,000 in 2009.

The Centre for Economics and Business Research in London says although Northern Ireland will be “somewhat cushioned” from the worst of the downturn, it will not escape a major recession next year.

The centre believes the public sector in the UK will emerge as the only growth industry in 2009 and, because of that, has moved Northern Ireland to the top of the list of GDP growth ranking.

But it warns that this is nothing to celebrate as the centre has also predicted economic output in the North will contract by 2.4 per cent over the coming year. The North’s regional economic development agency has said many aspects of its business activity already “show the scars of the downturn”.

Invest Northern Ireland said “early-stage work-in-progress” which tracks the pipeline of potential projects likely to be considered for approval in 2009/10 and beyond, is approximately 45 per cent down on 2007/08 levels.

The agency has revealed that foreign direct investment leads are “being particularly hard hit”, and sales from its land bank which funds growth, especially to locally-owned businesses, are down.

“Sales in 2008/09 are estimated to be at least 80 per cent down on last year,” the agency added.

There is, however, one growth area in the North – dealing with the surge in people searching for work in Northern Ireland.

The Department for Employment and Learning has taken on extra staff and is creating more than 100 posts in job centres across Northern Ireland.