Labour Market Report July 2024

The latest labour market statistics were published today (18th July 2024) by the Northern Ireland Statistics & Research Agency.

Payrolled employees and median earnings both increased over the month

• The number of employees receiving pay through HMRC PAYE in NI in June 2024 was 808,000, an increase of 0.4% over the month and 2.4% over the year.
• Earnings data from HMRC PAYE indicated that NI employees had a median monthly pay of £2,329 in June 2024, an increase of £83 (3.7%) over the month and £235 (11.2%) over the year.  
• The estimates from HMRC PAYE for the latest period, are based on early data and, therefore, are more likely to be subject to larger revisions.

Increase in the seasonally adjusted claimant count rate over the month

• In June 2024, the seasonally adjusted number of people on the claimant count was 38,800 (4.0% of the workforce), an increase of 3.1% from the previous month’s revised figure. The June 2024 claimant count remains 30% higher than the pre-pandemic count in March 2020.  These increases are largely due to the increase in the administrative earnings threshold for Universal Credit in May 2024.

Proposed redundancies lower than previous year while Confirmed redundancies almost double

• NISRA, acting on behalf of the Department for the Economy, received confirmation that 310 redundancies occurred in June 2024. Over the year July 2023 to June 2024, 2,560 redundancies were confirmed, which was almost double the figure for the previous year (1,340).
• There were 390 proposed redundancies in June 2024, taking the annual total to 2,890, which was around three quarters of the figure for the previous year (3,730).

Labour Force Survey headline measures

• The latest NI seasonally adjusted unemployment rate (the proportion of economically active people aged 16 and over who were unemployed) for the period March-May 2024 was estimated from the Labour Force Survey at 2.0%. This was a decrease of 0.2 percentage points (pps) over the quarter and a decrease of 0.3pps over the year.
• The proportion of people aged 16 to 64 in work (the employment rate) decreased by 0.6pps over the quarter and increased by 0.3pps over the year to 71.1%.
• The total number of weekly hours worked in NI was estimated at 28.3 million hours, an increase of 2.4% on the previous quarter and an increase of 0.6% on the equivalent period last 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 0.8pps over the quarter and decreased by 0.1pps over the year to 27.4%.

The statistical bulletin and associated tables are available on the Labour Market Report - July 2024 page.

Share this page