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 January 2023 was 785,400, a 0.1% increase over the month and a 2.0% increase over the year.
• When considering the annual change in employees by industry sector, the largest percentage increases over the year were recorded in the 'Arts, entertainment and recreation' (9.2%), 'Information and communication' (8.5%) and 'Professional, scientific and technical' (7.1%) sectors.
• Earnings from the HMRC PAYE indicated that NI employees had a median monthly pay of Pound 2,012 in January 2023, an increase of Pound 4 (0.2%) over the month and an increase of Pound 76 (3.9%) over the year.

Claimant Count Rate remains constant for ninth consecutive month

• In January 2023, the seasonally adjusted number of people on the claimant count was 35,900 (3.8% of the workforce), a decrease of 1.0% from the previous month's revised figure.  The January 2023 claimant count remains 20.5% higher than the pre-pandemic count in March 2020.

Increases in both confirmed and proposed redundancies over the month

• NISRA, acting on behalf of the Department for the Economy, received confirmation that 260 redundancies occurred in January 2023, taking the annual total to 970, 60.5% less than in the previous 12 months.
• 440 redundancies were proposed in January 2023.  Over the year February 2022 to January 2023, 1,960 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 October-December 2022 was estimated from the Labour Force Survey at 2.5%.  This was a decrease of 0.5 percentage points (pps) over the quarter and of 0.7pps 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 1.8pps over the quarter and by 3.1pps over the year to 71.9%.  Both the quarterly and annual changes were statistically significant. 
• The total number of weekly hours worked in NI (27.9 million) increased by 5.0% over the quarter and by 5.8% 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 1.5pps over the quarter and by 2.6pps over the year to 26.3%.  Both the quarterly and annual changes were 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 0.1% over the month and are 2.0% above the figure recorded in January 2022. Payrolled earnings also increased over the month, by 0.2% and are 3.9% above the figure recorded in January 2022.
• There were 260 redundancies confirmed to the Department in January 2023, taking the rolling twelve-month total to 970. Although this is an increase when compared to recent rolling twelve-month totals, it is still one of the lowest twelve-month totals in the time series. There were 440 proposed redundancies notified to the Department in January 2023, bringing the rolling twelve-month proposed redundancies total to 1,960. Again, this was an increase when compared to recent rolling twelve-month totals but is still well below the long term trend.
• The claimant count estimate decreased over the month to January 2023 from the revised estimate for December 2022 following a trend of four consecutive monthly increases between September 2022 and December 2022. The claimant count rate remained the same as the revised rate for December 2022, the ninth consecutive month that this rate has been at 3.8%.
• Results from the Labour Force Survey (LFS) show statistically significant increases in the employment rate over both the quarter and the year to October-December 2022 to 71.9%. The economic inactivity rate was 26.3% in October-December 2022, a statistically significant decrease over both the quarter and the year. In addition, the unemployment rate for October-December 2022 is 2.5%. Despite these changes, the employment rate remains 0.5pps below the pre-pandemic level recorded in October-December 2019, whilst the unemployment rate remains 0.1pps above the pre-pandemic position and the economic inactivity rate 0.4pps above the pre-pandemic rate. The total number of hours worked in October-December 2022 was 4.4% below the pre-pandemic position recorded in October-December 2019.