Labour Market Report September 2023

The latest labour market statistics were published today (12th September 2023) by the Northern Ireland Statistics & Research Agency.

Payrolled employees decreased and monthly earnings increased over the month

• The number of employees receiving pay through HMRC PAYE in NI in August 2023 was 791,300, a 0.1% decrease over the month and a 1.5% increase over the year.
• Earnings data from the HMRC PAYE indicated that NI employees had a median monthly pay of £2,094 in August 2023, an increase of £2 (0.1%) over the month and an increase of £119 (6.0%) over the year. 

Claimant Count Rate remains relatively constant over previous year

• In August 2023, the seasonally adjusted number of people on the claimant count was 36,700 (3.8% of the workforce), an increase of 0.4% from the previous month’s revised figure.  The August 2023 claimant count remains 22.9% higher than the pre-pandemic count in March 2020.

Proposed redundancies over three and a half times the total for previous year

• NISRA, acting on behalf of the Department for the Economy, received confirmation that 200 redundancies occurred in August 2023.  Over the year September 2022 to August 2023, 1,520 redundancies were confirmed, 40.7% more than in the previous 12 months.
• Over the twelve months to August 2023, there were 4,420 proposed redundancies, over three and a half times the total for the previous year (1,220).

Labour Force Survey employment, unemployment, and economic inactivity rates show little change over the year

• The latest NI seasonally adjusted unemployment rate (the proportion of economically active people age 16 and over who were unemployed) for the period May-July 2023 was estimated from the Labour Force Survey at 2.7%. This was an increase of 0.3 percentage points (pps) over the quarter and a decrease of 0.2pps over the year.
• The proportion of people aged 16 to 64 in work (the employment rate) decreased by 1.3pps over the quarter and increased by 1.5pps over the year to 71.1%.
• The total number of weekly hours worked in NI (27.8 million) decreased by 4.2% over the quarter and increased by 1.5% 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) increased by 1.1pps over the quarter and decreased by 1.3pps over the year to 26.9%.

Quarterly Employment Survey (QES) headline measures

• Businesses reported that employee jobs decreased over the quarter (-0.2%) and increased over the year (1.7%) to 813,450 jobs in June 2023.  The annual change was statistically significant.

The statistical bulletin and associated tables are available on the Labour Market Report - September 2023 page.

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