Labour Market Report November 2021

The latest labour market statistics were published today (16th November 2021) by the Northern Ireland Statistics & Research Agency.

Labour Market Report Infographic - November 2021

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

• The number of employees receiving pay through HMRC PAYE in NI in October 2021 was 768,200, an increase of 0.5% over the month and 4.4% over the year.  This is the highest on record and the fifth 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 £1,849 in October 2021, an increase of £4 (0.2%) over the month and an increase of £75 (4.2%) over the year.

NI Claimant Count (Experimental Series) decreased for the eighth consecutive month

• In October 2021, the seasonally adjusted number of people on the claimant count was 47,000 (4.8% of the workforce), which is a decrease of 300 (0.6%) from the previous month’s revised figure.  The October claimant count is 26% below the recent peak in May 2020, and 54% higher than the pre-pandemic count in March 2020.

Lowest rolling 12-month total of proposed redundancies since summer 2019

• During the three month period August to October there were 240 proposed redundancies.  Over the year from 1st November 2020 to 31st October 2021, 3,650 redundancies were proposed, 62% fewer than in the previous 12 months.

• NISRA, acting on behalf of the Department for the Economy, received confirmation that 200 redundancies occurred in October 2021.  At 3,350, the annual total was 24% less than in the previous year (4,400).

Labour Force Survey headline measures

• The latest NI seasonally adjusted unemployment rate (the proportion of economically active people aged 16+ who were unemployed) for the period July-September 2021 was estimated from the Labour Force Survey at 4.0%.  The unemployment rate increased by 0.2 percentage points (pps) over the quarter and increased by 0.6pps 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) decreased over the quarter and over the year by 0.9pps to 70.2%.  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 0.8pps and over the year by 0.5pps to 26.8%.  Neither the quarterly nor annual changes were statistically significant.

• The total number of weekly hours worked in NI was estimated at 26.9million, a decrease of 2.4% on the previous quarter and an increase of 3.7% on the equivalent period last year.

The statistical bulletin and associated tables are available on the Labour Market Report - November 2021 page.

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