Labour Market Report May 2023

Date published: 16 May 2023

The latest labour market statistics were published today (16th May 2023) by the Northern Ireland Statistics & Research Agency.

Payrolled employees and monthly earnings recorded a decrease over the month, although both recorded an increase over the year

• The number of employees receiving pay through HMRC PAYE in NI in April 2023 was 785,500, a 0.6% decrease over the month and a 1.5% increase over the year.
• HMRC PAYE data indicated that NI employees had a median monthly pay of £2,062 in April 2023, a decrease of £56 (2.6%) over the month and an increase of £128 (6.6%) over the year.

Highest claimant count rate for over a year

• In April 2023, the seasonally adjusted number of people on the claimant count was 37,500 (3.9% of the workforce), an increase of 3.8% from the previous month’s revised figure.  The April claimant count remains higher than the pre-pandemic count in March 2020 by 25.6%.

Number of confirmed redundancies remains below historic trend

• NISRA, acting on behalf of the Department for the Economy, received confirmation that 70 redundancies occurred in April 2023, taking the annual total to 1,060, 41.5% less than in the previous 12 months.
• Over the year May 2022 to April 2023, 2,090 redundancies were proposed, which was 5.1% less than the previous year (2,110).

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 January-March 2023 was estimated from the Labour Force Survey at 2.5%.  This was unchanged over the quarter and a decrease of 0.1 percentage points (pps) over the year.
• The proportion of people aged 16 to 64 in work (the employment rate) increased by 0.1pps over the quarter and increased by 1.4pps over the year to 72.0%.
• The total number of weekly hours worked in NI (28.9 million) increased by 3.7% over the quarter and increased by 3.0% over the 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 1.4pps over the year to 26.1%.

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