Northern Ireland Business Register and Employment Survey, 2020
Area: Northern Ireland
Theme: Labour Market
Frequency: Annual
Date Published: 3 August 2021
Contact: Arlene Connolly
Email: bres@finance-ni.gov.uk
1. Key Points
The total number of employee jobs in Northern Ireland in September 2020 was 779,053, a decrease of 6,817 jobs (-0.9%) since September 2019.
The decrease in employee jobs was driven by a decline in the Service industry which fell by 6,423 jobs (-1.0%). There were further job losses in Manufacturing, which decreased by 1,958 jobs (-2.2%).
The Construction industry increased by 1,093 jobs (3.1%) over the year to September 2020.
The number of full-time jobs in Northern Ireland fell by 937 (-0.2%) over the year to September 2020 and the number of part-time jobs fell by 5,880 (-2.2%).
The number of jobs occupied by females fell slightly by 0.3% (-1,276) while male jobs fell by 1.4% (-5,540).
Of the 11 District Council areas in Northern Ireland seven saw declines in the number of employee jobs over the year to September 2020. Belfast (-4,094), Antrim and Newtownabbey (-1,697) and Derry City and Strabane (-1,405) saw the largest decline in jobs while Newry, Mourne and Down (946) and Ards and North Down (843) saw increases over the year.
The number of jobs in the private sector decreased by 1.9% (-10,914) while the public sector increased by 2.0% (4,097).
These data were collected on 7th September 2020. COVID-19 restrictions were in place in Northern Ireland on this date.
The tables accompanying this report can be found here. Note that the data and analysis presented in this report include agriculture figures while the data in the accompanying tables exclude agriculture figures.
2. Gender and Working Pattern
- Of the 779,053 employee jobs in Northern Ireland in 2020, just over half (51%) were occupied by females and two-thirds (66%) were full-time.
Figure 1: Number of employee jobs in Northern Ireland by gender and working pattern, September 2020
The majority of jobs occupied by males were full-time (80%). Of those jobs occupied by females, 52% were full-time.
Male full-time jobs accounted for almost two-fifths (39%) of all jobs in Northern Ireland in September 2020.
The number of jobs occupied by males fell by 5,540 (-1.4%) over the year. The number of jobs occupied by females also declined but to a lesser extent than male jobs, down 1,277 (-0.3%).
The number of part-time jobs fell by 5,880 which is a 2.2% decrease on the 2019 figure. Of these part-time job losses 57% (3,330) were female jobs with a further 2,550 (43%) male part-time.
Figure 2: Proportion of employee jobs by gender and working pattern, September 2020
Figure 3: Percentage change in employee jobs by gender and working pattern, 2019 to 2020
3. Industry: Headline Level
The BRES 2020 results show that the Service sector accounted for 81% of all employee jobs in Northern Ireland, with a further 11% in Manufacturing, 5% in Construction and 3% in Other . The industry profile in Northern Ireland at headline industry level remained unchanged from 2019.
The Service and Manufacturing industries both saw declines in the number of employee jobs over the year to September 2020, with Service sector jobs down 1.0% and Manufacturing down 2.2%.
The Service sector includes jobs within Wholesale and Retail, Accommodation and Food Services and Arts, Entertainment and Recreation. These industries were particularly affected by the COVID-19 restrictions in place at the time the BRES 2020 survey was conducted. Manufacturing in Northern Ireland was also adversely affected by the pandemic with the aerospace industry reporting a number of significant job losses. Reported redundancies in Northern Ireland are available at industry section level on the NISRA website.
- Construction employee jobs increased over the year to September 2020 by 3.1% (1,093 jobs). The Other sector also increased by 2.0% or 471 jobs.
Figure 4: Percentage change in employee jobs by headline industry, gender and working pattern, 2019 to 2020
The Other industry has been excluded from this chart as small changes with relatively small baseline figures can result in large percentage changes.
The Construction industry saw an increase in both male (941) and female (152) jobs. The increase in Construction was seen in both full-time (950) and part-time (143) working patterns.
Manufacturing saw a decrease in male part-time jobs (-2,958) while female full-time and part-time Manufacturing jobs both increased (773 and 101 respectively).
The decrease in the Service sector was driven by a decrease in part-time jobs (-6,907). Of these part-time job losses 44% were male and 56% female.
4. Geography: District Council Area
Belfast remains the council area with the largest number of employee jobs (29%) in Northern Ireland with little change in the distribution of jobs across the remaining 10 District Council areas.
Of the 11 District Council areas, seven saw a decrease in the number of their employee jobs with the greatest declines in Belfast (-4,094 or -1.8%). Antrim and Newtownabbey (-1,697 or -2.7%) and Derry City and Strabane (-1,405 or -2.3%).
Newry Mourne and Down saw the largest increase in employee jobs over the year (946 or 1.6%) with further observed increases in Ards and North Down (843 or 2.1%) and Fermanagh and Omagh (639 or 1.4%).
The decreases observed in Belfast, Antrim and Newtownabbey and Derry City and Strabane were driven by decreases in the Service sector.
Belfast Services decreased by 3,951 (-1.8%) over the year with a further loss of 2,207 (-4.4%) Service sector jobs in Antrim and Newtownabbey and 1,630 (-3.2%) in Derry City and Strabane.
Services increased across a number of District Council areas with the largest increase in Service sector jobs being in Newry, Mourne and Down by 975 (2.2%).
The number of Construction jobs increased across all District Council areas except for Armagh City, Banbridge and Craigavon, and Belfast where small declines (-198 and -114 respectively) were observed.
Note: employee jobs can move from one District Council area to another. Therefore, an increase in a given District Council area may be as a result of new jobs or the movement of existing jobs into that area. Similarly, a decrease may be the result of jobs losses or the movement of jobs into another District Council area.
Figure 5: Percentage change in employee jobs by District Council area and headline industry, 2019 to 2020
5. Sector: Public/Private
The public/private sector jobs profile in Northern Ireland remains unchanged from 2019 with just over a quarter (27%) of jobs in the public sector.
The majority of public sector jobs are occupied by females (68%). The majority of private sector jobs are occupied by males (55%).
There were just over ten thousand male part-time jobs in the public sector in 2020 with six times as many female part-time jobs (10,222 male part-time, 61,791 female part-time).
Male full-time jobs accounted for 44% of all jobs in the private sector and 32% of all employee jobs in Northern Ireland in 2020.
The public sector saw an increase of 4,097 (2.0%) jobs over the year to September 2020. The growth in the public sector was driven by an increase of 3,029 (3.8%) female full-time jobs.
The private sector saw a decline of 10,914 (-1.9%) jobs over the year to September 2020. Of the job losses 61% were male and 55% were part-time.
Figure 6: Percentage of employee jobs by public/private sector, gender and working pattern, September 2020
Figure 7: Percentage change in employee jobs by public/private sector, gender and working pattern, 2019 to 2020
6. Background Notes
This bulletin summarises findings from the Northern Ireland Business Register and Employment Survey (BRES) 2020. A set of associated tables have been provided and are available here.
Agriculture Data
Note that the data and analysis presented in this report include agriculture employee job figures taken from the Agriculture Census in Northern Ireland 2020, published by the Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs.The agriculture job counts included in this report are Farm Labour: Other Workers. These data are included in industry Section A: Agriculture, Forestry and Fishing.
The data presented in the accompanying tables exclude agriculture figures.
The BRES report includes the agriculture employee job counts in line with the NI Quarterly Employment Survey output. However, the agriculture data is not available to all geographical and industry levels to which BRES data can be disaggregated, when the sample is sufficiently large. Therefore, for consistency, BRES tables have historically excluded the agriculture counts.
Sample
The Northern Ireland BRES sample for 2020 was approximately 13,000 businesses. A sample of this size allows the subsequent data to be disaggregated to industry headline level, District Council area and District Council area by industry headline level. The sample size in 2019 was sufficiently large to provide disaggregation of employee job figures to 5-digit SIC 2007 , District Council area level, Parliamentary Constituency area and Ward. The effective response rate for BRES 2020 was 70%.
Quality and Methodology
Further details on the quality of these data and the methodology used to produce them can be found in the Quality and Methodology Report.
Contact
We are always looking at ways of improving the content and quality of our publications and would like to hear your feedback. Are there additional or alternative tables or charts you wish to see included? If so, please contact: BRES@finance-ni.gov.uk
Arlene Connolly
Economic and Labour Market Statistics Branch
NISRA
Colby House,
Stranmillis Court,
Belfast. BT9 5RR
Telephone: 028 90529606
Email: BRES@finance-ni.gov.uk
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These statistics were designated as National Statistics in 2012 following a full assessment against the Code of Practice.
Since the assessment by the UK Statistics Authority, we have continued to comply with the Code of Practice for Statistics, and have made the following improvements:
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