Labour Market Report November 2023

The latest labour market statistics were published today (14th November 2023) by the Northern Ireland Statistics & Research Agency.

Payrolled employees and monthly earnings increased over the month

• The number of employees receiving pay through HMRC PAYE in NI in October 2023 was 797,400, a 0.3% increase over the month and a 2.0% increase over the year.
• Earnings data from the HMRC PAYE indicated that NI employees had a median monthly pay of £2,100 in October 2023, an increase of £2 (0.1%) over the month and £118 (6.0%) over the year. 
• When considering the annual change in earnings by industry to October 2023, finance and insurance was the only sector to see a decrease (1.9%). Public administration and defence, and Education both increased by 2.8%, which were the smallest annual increases and below the NI average (6.0%).

Claimant Count Rate remains relatively constant over previous year

• In October 2023, the seasonally adjusted number of people on the claimant count was 37,100 (3.8% of the workforce), a decrease of 0.2% from the previous month’s revised figure.  The October 2023 claimant count remains 24.2% higher than the pre-pandemic count in March 2020.

Proposed redundancies over three times the total for previous year

• NISRA, acting on behalf of the Department for the Economy, received confirmation that 450 redundancies occurred in October 2023.  Over the year November 2022 to October 2023, 2,200 redundancies were confirmed, more than double the previous year (940). 
• In the latest 12-month period, there were 4,000 proposed redundancies, which was more than triple the total for the previous year (1,290).

Labour Force Survey employment and unemployment rates show statistically significant changes 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 July-September 2023 was estimated from the Labour Force Survey at 2.1%.  This was a decrease of 0.6 percentage points (pps) over the quarter and 0.9pps from the same period last year.  Both changes were statistically significant.
• The proportion of people aged 16 to 64 in work (the employment rate) increased by 0.8pps over the quarter and by 2.2pps over the year to 72.2%.  The annual change was statistically significant.
• The total number of weekly hours worked in NI (27.8 million) decreased by 2.8% over the quarter and increased by 4.9% 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 0.2pps over the quarter and by 1.4pps over the year to 26.3%.

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

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