Labour Market Report December 2021

The latest labour market statistics were published today (14th December 2021) 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 November 2021 was 771,000, an increase of 0.7% over the month and 4.9% 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 £1,848 in November 2021, an increase of £3 (0.2%) over the month and an increase of £68 (3.8%) over the year.

In November 2021, the seasonally adjusted number of people on the claimant count was 44,500 (4.5% of the workforce), a decrease of 1,500 (3.4%) from the previous month’s revised figure. The November claimant count is 30% below the recent peak in May 2020, and 46% higher than the pre-pandemic count in March 2020.

Over the year from 1st December 2020 to 30th November 2021, 2,280 redundancies were proposed, 79% 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 November cannot be disclosed.
NISRA, acting on behalf of the Department for the Economy, received confirmation that 130 redundancies occurred in November 2021. At 3,070, the annual total was 35% less than in the previous year (4,730).

The number of employee jobs in September 2021 was estimated at 779,470. This was an increase of 7,520 jobs (+1.0%) over the quarter and 8,070 jobs (+1.0%) over the year. Neither the quarterly nor the annual changes in employee jobs were found to be statistically significant. September 2021 estimates showed that employee jobs have almost returned to the pre-pandemic December 2019 level (-0.1% or -460 jobs), and it marks the first annual increase since June 2020.
September 2021 marked the third consecutive quarterly increase in employee jobs, following four previous quarters of decline.
Quarterly increases in employee jobs were seen within the services (+6,100 jobs) and manufacturing (+1,520 jobs) sectors to September 2021. There were marginal decreases within the construction (-40 jobs) and other industries (-60 jobs) sectors over the quarter.
All broad industry sectors apart from construction experienced an increase in employee jobs over the year to September 2021, with the services sector reporting the biggest annual increase (+6,100 jobs). The construction sector experienced a decrease of 5.4% (-1,930 jobs) over the year to September 2021.
Private sector jobs increased both over the quarter (+0.9% or +5,260 jobs) and the year (+0.7% or +3,680 jobs) to 563,120 jobs in September 2021. Public sector jobs also increased over both the quarter (+0.8%, or +1,630 jobs) and the year (+2.0%, or +4,300 jobs) to 216,710 jobs in September 2021.

The latest NI seasonally adjusted unemployment rate (the proportion of economically active people aged 16+ who were unemployed) for the period August-October 2021 was estimated from the Labour Force Survey at 3.6%. The unemployment rate decreased by 0.4 percentage points (pps) over the quarter and by 0.2pps 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 0.8pps to 70.4%. 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 1.1pps and over the year by 1.0pps to 26.9%. Neither the quarterly nor annual changes were statistically significant.
The total number of weekly hours worked in NI was estimated at 27.8million, an increase of 2.2% on the previous quarter and an increase of 5.2% on the equivalent period last year.

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

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