Labour Market Report July 2023

Date published: 11 July 2023

The latest labour market statistics were published today (11th July 2023) by the Northern Ireland Statistics & Research Agency.

Payrolled employees decreased and monthly earnings increased over the month

• The number of employees receiving pay through HMRC PAYE in NI in June 2023 was 788,400, a 0.2% decrease over the month and a 1.6% increase over the year.
• Earnings data from the HMRC PAYE indicated that NI employees had a median monthly pay of £2,099 in June 2023, an increase of £17 (0.8%) over the month and an increase of £143 (7.3%) over the year. 
• When considering the annual change in employees by age, the percentage change increased as the age groups increased.

Claimant Count Rate remains relatively constant over previous year

• In June 2023, the seasonally adjusted number of people on the claimant count was 36,700 (3.8% of the workforce), an increase of 2.0% from the previous month’s revised figure.  The June 2023 claimant count remains 22.8% higher than the pre-pandemic count in March 2020.

Proposed redundancies double over the year

• NISRA, acting on behalf of the Department for the Economy, received confirmation that 210 redundancies occurred in June 2023.  Over the year July 2022 to June 2023, 1,340 redundancies were confirmed, 4.5% less than in the previous 12 months. 
• There were 1,960 proposed redundancies in June 2023, taking the annual total to 4,150, almost double the previous year (2,080).

Labour Force Survey employment, unemployment, and economic inactivity rates remain relatively steady

• 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 2023 was estimated from the Labour Force Survey at 2.5%.  This was an increase of 0.1 percentage points (pps) over the quarter and a decrease of 0.1pps over the year.
• The proportion of people aged 16 to 64 in work (the employment rate) was unchanged over the quarter and increased by 1.9pps over the year to 72.0%.
• The total number of weekly hours worked in NI was estimated at 28.6 million hours, an increase of 3.0% on the previous quarter, and an increase of 2.4% 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 0.1pps over the quarter and by 1.9pps over the year to 26.1%.

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