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 December 2022 was 783,800, a 0.2% increase over the month and a 2.0% increase over the year.
• When considering employees by age, the 25-34 age group is the only group yet to return to pre-COVID levels, remaining 0.4% below March 2020 numbers.
• Earnings from the HMRC PAYE indicated that NI employees had a median monthly pay of Pound 2,021 in December 2022, an increase of Pound 7 (0.3%) over the month and an increase of Pound 119 (6.3%) over the year.

Fourth consecutive monthly increase in the claimant count

• In December 2022, the seasonally adjusted number of people on the claimant count was 36,900 (3.9% of the workforce), which was an increase of 2.1% from the previous month's revised figure.  The December 2022 claimant count remains higher than the pre-pandemic count in March 2020 by 23.9%.

Lowest twelve-month total of confirmed redundancies in time series

• NISRA, acting on behalf of the Department for the Economy, received confirmation that 80 redundancies occurred in December 2022, taking the annual total to 730, the lowest annual total in the time series.
• 80 redundancies were proposed in December 2022.  Over the year January to December 2022, 1,570 redundancies were proposed.

Statistically significant changes in Labour Force Survey (LFS) employment and economic inactivity rates

• The latest NI seasonally adjusted unemployment rate (the proportion of economically active people aged 16 and over who were unemployed) for the period September-November 2022 was estimated from the Labour Force Survey at 2.8%.  This was a decrease of 0.3 percentage points (pps) over the quarter and a decrease of 0.8pps over the year.  Neither the quarterly nor annual changes were statistically significant.
• The proportion of people aged 16 to 64 in work (the employment rate) increased by 1.4pps over the quarter and increased by 3.3pps over the year to 71.3%.  The annual change was statistically significant.  The total number of weekly hours worked in NI (28.5 million) increased by 6.9% over the quarter and increased by 4.3% 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 1.2pps over the quarter and by 2.8pps over the year to 26.6%.  The annual change was statistically significant.

Commentary

• The latest labour market release shows that payrolled 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 shows that payrolled employee numbers increased by 0.2% over the month and are 2.0% above the figure recorded in December 2021. Payrolled earnings also increased over the month, by 0.3% and are 6.3% above the figure recorded in December 2021.
• There were 80 redundancies confirmed to the Department in December 2022, taking the rolling twelve-month total to 730. This is the lowest twelve-month total in the time series and, following the previous two months, is the third consecutive twelve-month total under 1,000. There were 80 proposed redundancies notified to the Department in December 2022 bringing the rolling twelve-month proposed redundancies total for January-December 2022 to 1,570.
• The claimant count estimate increased over the month to December 2022 from the revised estimate for November 2022, the fourth consecutive monthly increase following a trend of decreases between March 2021 and August 2022. The claimant count rate also increased over the month, for the first time since February 2021, from 3.8% to 3.9%.
• Results from the Labour Force Survey (LFS) show a statistically significant increase in the employment rate to 71.3% over the year to September-November 2022, as well as a statistically significant decrease in the economic inactivity rate to 26.6% over the year to September-November 2022. In addition, the unemployment rate for September-November 2022 is 2.8%. Despite these changes, the employment rate remains 1.2pps below the pre-pandemic level recorded in December-February 2020, whilst the unemployment rate remains 0.3pps above the pre-pandemic position and the economic inactivity rate 1.0pps above the pre-pandemic rate. The total number of hours worked in September-November 2022 was 0.6% below the pre-pandemic position recorded in December-February 2020.