BLEAK WEEK; MONDAY 87 out of work at Nortel plant, Belfast.

Byline: TONY ALLEN 

ALMOST 1,500 devastated workers were reeling last night after one of the darkest weeks yet for Northern Ireland jobs.

Plane making giant Bombardier confirmed it was axing almost 1,000 workers from its factories here, blaming an "unprecedented recession".

The latest jobs blow means Northern Ireland's manufacturing industry has lost two per cent of its workforce in just four days.

Other victims of the economic bloodbath included:

A TOTAL of 87 workers cut at Canadian telecoms firm Nortel in Co Antrim on Monday

210 get the boot as Ford sub- contractor Visteon mothballed its West Belfast factory on Tuesday

AND 95 laid off at engineering company FG Wilson in Co Antrim on Wednesday.

The total losses this week - 1,367 jobs - means unemployment has now surged past 42,000 - it's highest level since 1997.

Stormont employment minister Sir Reg Empey said: "Clearly it is the worst loss of jobs in a week in manufacturing in a long time.

"About 1,400 jobs that we know of are going - it is a huge slice of the manufacturing workforce, about two per cent - since Monday."

First Minister Peter Robinson issued the grim warning we are all completely "powerless" as Northern Ireland continues the relentless slide into recession. He admitted Northern Ireland was "reeling from a massive blow" after a week of job losses.

Mr Robinson said: "All we as an Executive can do is prepare those who have lost their jobs for new employment, to get out there and encourage investment for Northern Ireland.

"But unfortunately Bombardier will feel as powerless as we do."

Bombardier's announcement also comes as thousands of businesses are fighting to survive as the crunch turns shopping hotspots into ghost towns, with High Street giants including Woolworths and MFI hitting the wall in the past year.

The cuts at Bombardier will hit four of its sites in Queen's Island, East Belfast, as well as Newtownards, Co Down, Newtownabbey and Dunmurry in Co Antrim.

After the jobs are slashed, Bombardier will employ 5,000 people at the four bases.

They come despite a pounds 519million investment in the Belfast operation last summer to secure 800 jobs. Yesterday's announcement follows the axing of 300 subcontractors' jobs at the plant in February.

The company will now enter a 90- day consultation period with trade unions.

Bombardier - the world's oldest aircraft manufacturer - blamed a plummeting aviation market for the cuts and predicts a 10 per cent fall in aircraft sales this year.

One devastated engineer told the Daily Mirror as he left Bombardier's East Belfast plant: "I don't know how I'm going to cope or feed my kids.

"It's awful, everyone's in shock at being booted out to look for work in this terrible climate."

Full-time worker Chris Wilson, 28, who has worked for the firm since he was a teenager, said: "It's absolutely devastating. Who knows how we're all going to find work?"

Drivers passing the plant blasted their horns in support of the workers as they flooded out of the factory at the end of their shift.

Bombardier, best-known for its Learjet executive plane and Challenger aircraft, moved to Belfast after surviving the depression which gripped Britain after World War One.

But David McMurray from the Unite trade union said this was a death blow.

He added: "It's been the worst week for manufacturing in Britain since Thatcher." Shop steward Hugh Murphy said Northern Ireland would not survive without manufacturing.

He added: "You can't run an economy on sales of potatoes.

"The Government and Stormont ministers need to get stuck in and make sure this industry survives.

"It's part of Northern Ireland's history that we can't afford to lose."

The redundancies are part of around 3,000 jobs cuts Bombardier at its facilities in Canada, the United States, Mexico and Northern Ireland.

Severance costs associated with the layoffs are expected to total approximately $30million.

A spokesman for the company said they "deeply regret" the cuts.

He added: "Unfortunately, however, the force of this global recession is unprecedented.

" The market conditions have worsened and Bomba r d i e r i s revising downwards most of its aircraft production rates and implementing measures to meet challenges facing the whole aviation industry."

He said they were pounds 500million in the continuing to invest pounds 500million in the C-Series aircraft which is produced in Belfast.

Experts now fear the UK jobless total could hit three million by December.

And a survey by the Bank of Ireland warned a sixth of the workforce in Northern Ireland could be out of work by 2010.

DEPRESSION FEARS FOR THOSE HEADING TO DOLE

EXPERTS warned the latest jobs blow will have a crushing psychologicalimpact on Northern Ireland.

Deirdre Heenan, Professor of Social Policy at the University of Ulster, saiddepression was directly related to theeconomic slump.

She added: "The number of people claiming unemployment b enefits dueto depression has soared recently, andthis must be linked to the economic downturn.

"There is a mood of gloom, with people constantly talking ab outthe credit crunch, and this has areal knock-on effect on people's psychological outlook."

CAPTION(S):

DISMAY Workers leave Bombardier Aerospace in Belfast SHOCKED Unite manager Davy McMurray yesterday