The labour market statistics were published today by the Northern Ireland Statistics & Research Agency.

Payrolled employees and monthly earnings recorded an increase over the month

• The number of employees receiving pay through HMRC PAYE in NI in October 2022 was 781,300, a 0.2% increase over the month and a 2.5% increase over the year. When considering the annual change in employees by industry sector, the largest percentage increase over the year was recorded in the 'Information and communication' (9.2%) sector.
• Earnings from the HMRC PAYE indicated that NI employees had a median monthly pay of Pound 1,967 in October 2022, an increase of Pound 10 (0.5%) over the month and an increase of Pound 117 (6.3%) over the year.

Second consecutive monthly increase in the claimant count

• In October 2022, the seasonally adjusted number of people on the claimant count was 36,100 (3.8% of the workforce), which was an increase of 1.4% from the previous month's revised figure.  The October claimant count remains higher than the pre-pandemic count in March 2020 (by 21.1%).

Lowest twelve-month total of confirmed redundancies in time series

• NISRA, acting on behalf of the Department for the Economy, received confirmation that 60 redundancies occurred in October 2022, taking the annual total to 940, the lowest annual total in the time series (since 2000).
• Over the year November 2021 to October 2022, 1,290 redundancies were proposed.

Labour Force Survey (LFS) headline measures

• The latest NI seasonally adjusted unemployment rate (the proportion of economically active people aged 16 and over who were unemployed) for the period July-September 2022 was estimated from the Labour Force Survey at 3.0%.  This was an increase of 0.3 percentage points (pps) over the quarter and a decrease of 1.3pps over the year.  The annual change was statistically significant.
• The proportion of people aged 16 to 64 in work (the employment rate) increased by 0.4pps over the quarter and increased by 2.0pps over the year to 70.1%.  Neither the quarterly nor annual changes were statistically significant.  The total number of weekly hours worked in NI (26.5 million) decreased by 4.7% over the quarter and increased by 1.7% over the year.
• The economic inactivity rate (the proportion of people aged 16 to 64 who were not working and not seeking or available to work) decreased by 0.6pps over the quarter and by 1.0pps over the year to 27.7%.  Neither the quarterly nor annual changes were statistically significant.

Commentary

• The latest labour market release shows that payroll employee numbers and earnings have both increased over the year. Measures of total employment (e.g. employment rate and hours worked), unemployment and economic inactivity continue to show improvement over the year but have not yet returned to their pre-pandemic position.
• The latest HMRC payroll data showed that payrolled employee numbers increased by 0.2% over the month and are 2.5% above the figure recorded in October 2021. Payroll earnings also increased over the month, by 0.5% and are 6.3% above the figure recorded in October 2021.
• There were 60 redundancies confirmed to the Department in October 2022. Over the most recent twelve-month period, 1,290 redundancies were proposed and 940 were confirmed, continuing the trend of decreasing annual confirmed redundancies seen throughout 2022.  
• The claimant count estimate increased over the month to October 2022 from the revised estimate for September 2022. This is the second consecutive monthly increase following a trend of decreases between March 2021 and August 2022. The claimant count rate however has remained at 3.8% for the sixth consecutive month.
• The Labour Force Survey (LFS) shows a statistically significant decrease in the unemployment rate over the year to July-September 2022 to 3.0%.  When compared to pre-pandemic levels in October-December 2019, the total number of hours worked in July-September 2022 was 9.0% below, whilst the employment rate was 2.3pps below. The economic inactivity rate remains 1.9pps above the pre-pandemic position and the unemployment rate is 0.6pps above the pre-pandemic period.