Health and Social Care workforce continues to grow while vacancies rise
Date published:
Topics:
Health and social care
New official statistics published today by NISRA statisticians in the Department of Health present the latest data on the Health and Social Care Northern Ireland (HSCNI) workforce and active recruitment vacancies in Northern Ireland as at 30 September 2025.
Key findings
Workforce:
- The HSCNI workforce stood at 67,432 whole-time equivalent (WTE) staff, an increase of 2.0% (1,313 WTE) from 30 September 2024 and 9.6% (5,879 WTE) higher than five years ago.
- Almost one third (32.9%) of the workforce was in the Nursing & Midwifery occupational family, comprising 17,988 WTE Registered Nursing & Midwifery staff (up 2.1% from last year) and 4,210 WTE Nursing & Midwifery Support staff (down 1.5%).
- The Belfast HSC Trust employed the largest workforce with 19,094 WTE staff, 1.4% higher than September 2024. All five regional HSC Trusts reported increases in staff numbers since September 2020.
- Over a third (37.4%) of HSC staff were employed at Agenda for Change pay bands 6 and above.
Vacancies:
- There were 6,310 vacancies actively being recruited across HSCNI. This equated to an active recruitment vacancy rate of 7.3%.
- This represents a 17.3% increase from September 2024 (5,381 vacancies) and a 35.7% increase from September 2020 (4,651 vacancies).
- Nursing & Midwifery had the highest number of vacancies (2,098), making up 33.2% of all HSCNI vacancies. The Nursing & Midwifery Support staff group had the highest vacancy rate at 11.3%.
About the publication
The full reports contain detailed breakdowns of HSCNI workforce statistics and active recruitment data by staff group and HSC organisation, and includes trend information.
Further information
Read the full reports:
HSCNI workforce statistics September 2025
HSCNI active recruitment statistics September 2025
View background information and data tables: HSCNI workforce statistics