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The number of people in work in Northern Ireland in April is still 1.5% lower than before the Covid-19 pandemic hit, according to newly released official figures.

The latest payroll data suggests about 740,000 people in Northern Ireland were in work last month.

That is down 10,000 from a peak of more than 750,000 in March 2020.

The biggest fall was between March and April 2020 and the numbers have remained fairly consistent since then.

The government's job retention scheme or furlough has been continuing to support the labour market throughout the pandemic.

However, the data suggests that the number of people on the scheme is starting to come down.

It is continuing to pay 80% of wages of almost 99,400 people in Northern Ireland, a decrease of approximately 10,000 from January and February levels.

That is well below levels of approximately 139,000 recorded at the start of July 2020, the first month for which comparable figure are available

The employment rate is 2.8% lower than this time last year at 69.1%.

Young people between the ages of 16-24 accounted for almost three quarters of the total fall in employment.

The number of proposed redundancies slowed at the start of the year, with employers proposing 140 redundancies from February to April.

But there was an increase in the first two weeks of May with 150 proposed redundancies.