NI confirmed redundancies over 20% higher than last year
Date published:
The latest labour market statistics were published today (20th January 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 December 2025 was 815,600, which was unchanged over the month and an increase of 1.0% over the year.
Earnings data from HMRC PAYE indicated that NI employees had a median monthly pay of £2,405 in December 2025, unchanged over the month and an increase of £110 (4.8%) 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 latest NI seasonally adjusted unemployment rate (the proportion of economically active people aged 16 and over who were unemployed) for the period September-November 2025 was estimated from the Labour Force Survey at 2.1%. This represents a decrease of 0.5 percentage points (pps) over the quarter and an increase of 0.4pps over the year.
The proportion of people aged 16 to 64 in work (the employment rate) increased by 0.8pps over the quarter and decreased by 0.6pps over the year to 72.0%.
The total number of weekly hours worked in NI was estimated at 30.2 million hours, an increase of 5.4% on the previous quarter and a decrease of 0.3% 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 0.5pps over the quarter and increased by 0.2pps over the year to 26.4%.
Seasonally adjusted claimant count rate remains stable over the month
In December 2025, the seasonally adjusted number of people on the claimant count was 35,500 (3.6% of the workforce), a decrease of 0.5% from the previous month’s revised figure. The December 2025 claimant count remains 18.7% 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 220 redundancies occurred in December 2025, taking the annual total to 2,260, which was over twenty percent higher than the figure for the previous year (1,840).
There were 2,610 redundancies proposed in the twelve months to December 2025, which was over ten percent less than the previous year (2,980).
The statistical bulletin and associated tables are available on the Labour Market Report - January 2026 page.