Employees in NI increase over the year
Date published:
The latest labour market statistics were published today (15th September 2026) by the Northern Ireland Statistics & Research Agency.
Payrolled employees and median earnings increased over the year
The number of employees receiving pay through HMRC PAYE in NI in August 2026 was 819,200, a decrease of 0.1% over the month and an increase of 0.8% over the year.
Earnings data from HMRC PAYE indicated that NI employees had a median monthly pay of £2,509 in August 2026, an increase of £16 (0.6%) over the month and an increase of £133 (5.6%) 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.
Labour Force Survey headline measures
The headline estimates of unemployment, employment and economic inactivity come from the Labour Force Survey. There have been small changes in each of the headline estimates over the quarter and year, however only the unemployment quarterly change was statistically significant.
The latest NI seasonally adjusted unemployment rate (the proportion of economically active people aged 16 and over who were unemployed) for the period May-July 2026 was estimated from the Labour Force Survey at 2.4%. This represents an increase of 0.6 percentage points (pps) over the quarter and an increase of 0.1pps over the year. The quarterly change was statistically significant.
The proportion of people aged 16 to 64 in work (the employment rate) increased by 0.2pps over the quarter and increased by 0.4pps over the year to 72.2%. The number of employed people (age 16 and over) in NI was estimated at 900,000, an increase of 3,000 from the last quarter and an increase of 4,000 from the same period last year.
The total number of weekly hours worked in NI was estimated at 29.3 million hours, a decrease of 0.5% on the previous quarter and a decrease of 0.1% 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) decreased by 0.6pps over the quarter and decreased by 0.5pps over the year to 26.0%.
Seasonally adjusted claimant count rate remains stable over the month
In August 2026, the seasonally adjusted number of people on the claimant count was 33,400 (3.3% of the workforce), an increase of 1.4% from the previous month’s revised figure. The August 2026 claimant count remains 11.8% higher than the pre-pandemic count in March 2020.
Latest annual total of confirmed redundancies higher than previous year
NISRA, acting on behalf of the Department for the Economy, received confirmation that 130 redundancies occurred in August 2026, taking the annual total to 1,360, which was over forty-four percent less than the figure for the previous year (2,430).
There were 290 proposed redundancies in August 2026, taking the annual total to 2,950, which was over four percent less than the previous year (3,080).
Quarterly Employment Survey (QES) headline measures
Businesses reported through the QES that employee jobs increased over the quarter (0.4%) and increased over the year (2.1%) to 857,660 jobs in June 2026.
The statistical bulletin and associated tables are available on the Labour Market Report - September 2026 page.