Labour Market Report January 2022

The latest labour market statistics were published today (18th January 2022) by the Northern Ireland Statistics & Research Agency.

Payrolled employees now higher than pre-COVID for the sixth consecutive month

The number of employees receiving pay through HMRC PAYE in NI in December 2021 was 773,400, an increase of 0.6% over the month and 5.0% over the year. This is the highest on record and the sixth consecutive month that employee numbers have been above pre-COVID levels.
Earnings from the HMRC PAYE indicated that NI employees had a median monthly pay of £1,880 in December 2021, an increase of £20 (1.1%) over the month and an increase of £102 (5.7%) over the year.

In December 2021, the seasonally adjusted number of people on the claimant count was 42,600 (4.3% of the workforce), a decrease of 1,300 (2.9%) from the previous month’s revised figure. The December claimant count is 33% below the recent peak in May 2020, and 40% higher than the pre-pandemic count in March 2020.

Over the 2021 calendar year, 1,940 redundancies were proposed, 82% less than in the previous 12 months.
In line with the statistical disclosure control policy to prevent potential identification of individual businesses, redundancy totals relating to fewer than 3 businesses are not disclosed. As such the number of proposed redundancies for the month of December cannot be disclosed.
NISRA, acting on behalf of the Department for the Economy, received confirmation that 200 redundancies occurred in December 2021. At 2,840, the annual total was 44% less than in the previous year (5,030).

The latest NI seasonally adjusted unemployment rate (the proportion of economically active people aged 16+ who were unemployed) for the period September-November 2021 was estimated from the Labour Force Survey at 3.1%. The unemployment rate decreased by 1.0 percentage points (pps) over the quarter and increased by 0.1pps over the year. The quarterly change was statistically significant and is likely to reflect real change.
The proportion of people aged 16 to 64 in work (the employment rate) decreased over the quarter by 1.0pps and over the year by 1.1pps to 70.0%. Neither the quarterly nor annual changes were statistically significant.
The economic inactivity rate (the proportion of people aged 16 to 64 who were not working and not seeking or available to work) increased over the quarter by 1.8pps and over the year by 1.1pps to 27.6%. The quarterly change was statistically significant and is likely to reflect real change.
The total number of weekly hours worked in NI was estimated at 28.3million, an increase of 4.3% on the previous quarter and an increase of 2.8% on the equivalent period last year.

The statistical bulletin and associated tables are available on the Labour Market Report - January 2022 page.

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