All tables associated with this report can be downloaded from the NISRA website.

1. Overview

1.1 Key points

The number of employees receiving pay through HMRC PAYE in NI in December 2024 was 803,000, a decrease of 0.3% over the month and an increase of 0.6% over the year.

Employment section 3.3
Earnings from HMRC PAYE indicated that NI employees had a median monthly pay of £2,291 in December 2024, an increase of £2 (0.1%) over the month and an increase of £139 (6.5%) over the year.

Employment section 3.4
In December 2024, the seasonally adjusted number of people on the claimant count was 40,000 (4.1% of the workforce), a decrease of 1.4% from the previous month’s revised figure. The December 2024 claimant count remains 33.9% higher than the pre-pandemic count in March 2020.

Unemployment section 2.2
NISRA, acting on behalf of the Department for the Economy, received confirmation that 240 redundancies occurred in December 2024, taking the annual total to 1,840. There were 2,980 redundancies proposed in the twelve months to December 2024.

Unemployment section 2.3
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 2024 was estimated from the Labour Force Survey at 1.7%. This represents a decrease of 0.1 percentage points (pps) over the quarter and a decrease of 0.7pps over the year.

Unemployment section 2.1
Line chart of seasonally adjusted unemployment rate (Age 16 and over) in NI. More detail on the trends is included in the text directly beside the charts and later in the report.
The proportion of people aged 16 to 64 in work (the employment rate) increased by 0.5pps over the quarter and increased by 0.2pps over the year to 72.6%.

Employment section 3.1
Line chart of seasonally adjusted employment rate (Aged 16 to 64) in NI. More detail on the trends is included in the text directly beside the charts and later in the report.
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 0.4pps over the quarter and increased by 0.4pps over the year to 26.1%.

Economic inactivity section 4.1
Line chart of seasonally adjusted economic inactivity rates (Aged 16 to 64) in NI. More detail on the trends is included in the text directly beside the charts and later in the report.
The total number of weekly hours worked in NI was estimated at 30.3 million hours, an increase of 5.3% on the previous quarter and an increase of 2.6% on the equivalent period last year.

Employment section 3.2

1.2 Commentary

The latest Labour Market release shows that over the year both payrolled employee numbers and earnings have increased. From the Labour Force Survey, the employment rate saw an increase with a decrease in the unemployment rate. However, the economic inactivity rate has increased.

The latest HMRC payroll data shows that payrolled employees decreased by 0.3% over the month and increased by 0.6% over the year. Payrolled earnings increased by 0.1% over the month and were 6.5% higher than December 2023.

Households reported, via the Labour Force Survey (LFS), over the year to September-November 2024, a 0.7pps decrease in the unemployment rate (to 1.7%), an increase of 0.4pps in the economic inactivity rate (to 26.1%) and an increase of 0.2pps in the employment rate (to 72.6%). None of these annual changes were statistically significant.

The total number of hours worked in September-November 2024 increased by 2.6% over the year, to 30.3 million hours per week. This is 4.6% above the pre-pandemic position recorded in December-February 2020 and almost equal to the record level recorded in the time series in September-November 2019 (30.5 million hours per week).

In December 2024, the Department was notified of 240 confirmed redundancies, bringing the rolling twelve-month total of confirmed redundancies to 1,840, approximately seventy percent of the figure for the previous year (2,600). The annual total of proposed redundancies was 2,980, also around seventy percent of the figure for the previous year (4,300). Both the twelve-month totals of proposed and confirmed redundancies are similar to the levels seen in the decade preceding the pandemic.

Finally, there was a decrease of 1.4% in the claimant count estimate over the month to December 2024, from the revised figure for November 2024. The claimant count rate for December 2024 was 4.1%, unchanged from the revised rate for November 2024.

1.3 Things users need to know

Labour Force Survey reweighting

The December 2024 publication was the first Labour Market Report to contain data from an exercise recently undertaken by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) to reweight the LFS to take account of updated population estimates. This reweighting also corrected an error in the ONS processing of the NI LFS results dating back to the January to March 2020 quarter.

Information on this reweighting can be found in the Impact of reweighting on Labour Force Survey key indicators: December 2024 paper released by ONS on the 3rd December 2024. On the same date, NISRA released the ‘Impact of ONS’s Labour Force Survey Reweighting Exercise: December 2024’ paper, which can be found on the LFS Background Information page.

Labour Market Statistics – Transformation in Northern Ireland

The Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency (NISRA) is currently in the process of transforming the Labour Force Survey (LFS) and associated labour market statistics for Northern Ireland. This work is being advanced alongside work by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) to transform the LFS in Great Britain.

On 10th April 2024, NISRA published The Transformation of Labour Market Statistics in Northern Ireland – NISRA User Information Paper April 2024 . This paper provided background on the current LFS together with an overview of NISRA’s Social Surveys, outlining both the potential and necessity to change how such surveys are conducted in the future. The paper also details how the new Labour Market Survey (LMS) follows an online first approach, highlighting how both the content of the questionnaire and the supporting field operation have been tailored to meet local needs.

Alongside this, an LMS & LFS Mapping Document - April 2024 was published. This document compared all of the questionnaire variables in the LMS to the equivalent in the LFS and highlights the differences and similarities between the two surveys. More information on the Transformation of the Labour Market Statistics in NI can be found at Labour Force Survey Transformation.

If, on reading the information paper and associated documentation, you have any queries regarding NISRA’s work in this space we would love to hear from you. All queries should be sent to: Labourmarketstatistics@nisra.gov.uk.

1.4 Context

The Labour Market Report is a monthly overview of key labour market statistics for NI.

The Use of Economic and Labour Market Business and Household Surveys page provides recent examples of how data collected from the Labour Force Survey is used to inform, develop and monitor evidence-based policies. A Labour Market Outputs consultation in summer 2019 (Labour Market Statistics User Engagement page) showed labour market statistics are also used in academic and private sector research. Significant non-governmental users of labour market statistics include the media, banks, academics, private consultants, and the general public. User requested analysis is published on the NISRA website.


2. Unemployment

2.1 Labour Force Survey unemployment

LFS unemployment: The International Labour Organisation (ILO) defines unemployed as those aged 16 and over without a job who were able to start work in the two weeks following their LFS interview and had either looked for work in the four weeks prior to interview or were waiting to start a job they had already obtained.

Key findings

  • The NI unemployment rate for September-November 2024 decreased over both the quarter and the year to 1.7%.
  • The most recent UK unemployment rate for September-November 2024 was estimated at 4.4%.

Figure 1: The latest NI unemployment rate remains historically low

Seasonally adjusted unemployment rate (Age 16 and over), Sep-Nov 2009 to Sep-Nov 2024
Chart
Table
Date Northern Ireland United Kingdom
Sep-Nov 2009 6.7 7.8
Dec-Feb 2010 6.5 7.9
Mar-May 2010 7.1 7.9
Jun-Aug 2010 6.9 7.8
Sep-Nov 2010 7.8 7.9
Dec-Feb 2011 7.3 7.8
Mar-May 2011 7.1 7.8
Jun-Aug 2011 7.5 8.2
Sep-Nov 2011 6.7 8.5
Dec-Feb 2012 6.6 8.3
Mar-May 2012 6.9 8.1
Jun-Aug 2012 8.2 7.9
Sep-Nov 2012 7.8 7.8
Dec-Feb 2013 8.1 8.0
Mar-May 2013 7.7 7.7
Jun-Aug 2013 7.4 7.7
Sep-Nov 2013 7.3 7.2
Dec-Feb 2014 7.6 6.9
Mar-May 2014 6.6 6.4
Jun-Aug 2014 6.3 6.0
Sep-Nov 2014 5.9 5.9
Dec-Feb 2015 6.0 5.6
Mar-May 2015 6.2 5.6
Jun-Aug 2015 6.0 5.4
Sep-Nov 2015 6.0 5.1
Dec-Feb 2016 6.3 5.1
Mar-May 2016 5.7 4.9
Jun-Aug 2016 5.4 5.0
Sep-Nov 2016 5.8 4.8
Dec-Feb 2017 5.2 4.6
Mar-May 2017 5.1 4.4
Jun-Aug 2017 4.6 4.3
Sep-Nov 2017 4.0 4.3
Dec-Feb 2018 3.4 4.2
Mar-May 2018 3.4 4.2
Jun-Aug 2018 4.0 4.0
Sep-Nov 2018 3.5 4.0
Dec-Feb 2019 3.0 4.0
Mar-May 2019 3.0 3.8
Jun-Aug 2019 2.9 3.9
Sep-Nov 2019 2.3 3.8
Dec-Feb 2020 2.5 3.9
Mar-May 2020 2.9 4.1
Jun-Aug 2020 3.7 4.6
Sep-Nov 2020 3.6 5.2
Dec-Feb 2021 3.9 5.0
Mar-May 2021 4.0 4.8
Jun-Aug 2021 4.3 4.5
Sep-Nov 2021 3.5 4.2
Dec-Feb 2022 3.0 3.9
Mar-May 2022 2.5 3.7
Jun-Aug 2022 3.0 3.6
Sep-Nov 2022 2.7 3.9
Dec-Feb 2023 2.3 4.0
Mar-May 2023 2.2 4.0
Jun-Aug 2023 2.2 4.3
Sep-Nov 2023 2.4 4.0
Dec-Feb 2024 2.2 4.2
Mar-May 2024 1.7 4.4
Jun-Aug 2024 1.8 4.1
Sep-Nov 2024 1.7 4.4


Figure 1 shows the unemployment rates for NI and the UK over the last 15 years. During this period, the UK unemployment rate peaked at 8.5% in late-2011, while the NI unemployment rate peaked at 8.2% in mid-2012. Following these peaks, both unemployment rates showed a downward trend until the end of 2019. After rises during the early part of the pandemic, both rates then decreased. Over the most recent year to September-November 2024, the NI unemployment rate decreased by 0.7pps to 1.7%, the lowest rate in this timeseries, while the UK unemployment rate increased by 0.5pps to 4.4%.

The NI unemployment rate (age 16 and over) for the period September-November 2024 was estimated at 1.7%. This was:

  • a decrease of 0.1pps over the quarter (not statistically significant); and
  • a decrease of 0.7pps over the year (not statistically significant).

The number of unemployed people (age 16 and over) in NI was estimated at 15,000, which was:

  • down 1,000 over the quarter; and
  • down 7,000 from the same period last year.

UK regional comparison:

  • The NI unemployment rate (age 16 and over) of 1.7% was 2.8pps below the most recent UK rate of 4.4%.
  • the lowest of the twelve UK regions.

2.2 Claimant count (experimental)

Claimant Count (experimental) consists of all people claiming Jobseeker’s Allowance (JSA) plus those Universal Credit (UC) claimants who were claiming principally for the reason of being unemployed. Some claimants are wholly unemployed and seeking work, while others may be employed but with low earnings that make them eligible for unemployment related benefit support.

Key findings

  • Over the month to December 2024, the NI claimant count decreased by 1.4% to 40,000.
  • In December 2024, 4.1% of the NI workforce were recorded on the claimant count.

Figure 2: Seasonally adjusted claimant count rate remains stable over the month

NI seasonally adjusted claimant count (experimental) monthly rates, December 2009 to December 2024
Chart

Note: graph has a non-zero axis

Table
Date Undercount Rate
Dec 2009 6.1
Jan 2010 6.1
Feb 2010 6.1
Mar 2010 6.1
Apr 2010 6.1
May 2010 6.1
Jun 2010 6.2
Jul 2010 6.2
Aug 2010 6.3
Sep 2010 6.4
Oct 2010 6.4
Nov 2010 6.4
Dec 2010 6.4
Jan 2011 6.4
Feb 2011 6.5
Mar 2011 6.5
Apr 2011 6.5
May 2011 6.5
Jun 2011 6.6
Jul 2011 6.7
Aug 2011 6.7
Sep 2011 6.7
Oct 2011 6.7
Nov 2011 6.7
Dec 2011 6.7
Jan 2012 6.9
Feb 2012 6.9
Mar 2012 6.9
Apr 2012 7.0
May 2012 7.0
Jun 2012 7.1
Jul 2012 7.2
Aug 2012 7.1
Sep 2012 7.2
Oct 2012 7.2
Nov 2012 7.2
Dec 2012 7.3
Jan 2013 7.2
Feb 2013 7.2
Mar 2013 7.2
Apr 2013 7.2
May 2013 7.1
Jun 2013 7.0
Jul 2013 7.0
Aug 2013 7.0
Sep 2013 6.9
Oct 2013 6.8
Nov 2013 6.7
Dec 2013 6.6
Jan 2014 6.5
Feb 2014 6.4
Mar 2014 6.3
Apr 2014 6.2
May 2014 6.1
Jun 2014 6.0
Jul 2014 5.8
Aug 2014 5.8
Sep 2014 5.8
Oct 2014 5.7
Nov 2014 5.6
Dec 2014 5.5
Jan 2015 5.4
Feb 2015 5.2
Mar 2015 5.0
Apr 2015 4.9
May 2015 4.8
Jun 2015 4.8
Jul 2015 4.7
Aug 2015 4.6
Sep 2015 4.5
Oct 2015 4.4
Nov 2015 4.4
Dec 2015 4.3
Jan 2016 4.2
Feb 2016 4.2
Mar 2016 4.2
Apr 2016 4.1
May 2016 4.0
Jun 2016 4.0
Jul 2016 3.9
Aug 2016 3.8
Sep 2016 3.8
Oct 2016 3.7
Nov 2016 3.6
Dec 2016 3.6
Jan 2017 3.5
Feb 2017 3.5
Mar 2017 3.4
Apr 2017 3.4
May 2017 3.4
Jun 2017 3.3
Jul 2017 3.3
Aug 2017 3.3
Sep 2017 3.2
Oct 2017 3.2
Nov 2017 3.1
Dec 2017 3.2
Jan 2018 3.1
Feb 2018 3.2
Mar 2018 3.1
Apr 2018 3.1
May 2018 3.1
Jun 2018 3.1
Jul 2018 3.0
Aug 2018 3.0
Sep 2018 3.1
Oct 2018 3.1
Nov 2018 3.2
Dec 2018 3.2
Jan 2019 3.1
Feb 2019 3.1
Mar 2019 3.1
Apr 2019 3.1
May 2019 3.1
Jun 2019 3.1
Jul 2019 3.1
Aug 2019 3.0
Sep 2019 3.1
Oct 2019 3.2
Nov 2019 3.2
Dec 2019 3.2
Jan 2020 3.0
Feb 2020 3.0
Mar 2020 3.0
Apr 2020 5.7
May 2020 6.5
Jun 2020 6.3
Jul 2020 6.3
Aug 2020 6.3
Sep 2020 6.1
Oct 2020 6.0
Nov 2020 6.0
Dec 2020 5.9
Jan 2021 5.9
Feb 2021 6.1
Mar 2021 6.0
Apr 2021 5.9
May 2021 5.7
Jun 2021 5.4
Jul 2021 5.3
Aug 2021 5.1
Sep 2021 5.0
Oct 2021 4.8
Nov 2021 4.6
Dec 2021 4.4
Jan 2022 4.1
Feb 2022 4.0
Mar 2022 3.9
Apr 2022 3.7
May 2022 3.7
Jun 2022 3.7
Jul 2022 3.7
Aug 2022 3.6
Sep 2022 3.6
Oct 2022 3.6
Nov 2022 3.7
Dec 2022 3.8
Jan 2023 3.7
Feb 2023 3.6
Mar 2023 3.7
Apr 2023 3.7
May 2023 3.7
Jun 2023 3.7
Jul 2023 3.7
Aug 2023 3.7
Sep 2023 3.8
Oct 2023 3.7
Nov 2023 3.7
Dec 2023 3.7
Jan 2024 3.7
Feb 2024 3.7
Mar 2024 3.7
Apr 2024 3.7
May 2024 3.8
Jun 2024 3.9
Jul 2024 4.1
Aug 2024 4.2
Sep 2024 4.2
Oct 2024 4.2
Nov 2024 4.1
Dec 2024 4.1


In December 2024, 40,000 people were recorded on the NI Claimant Count. This is 37.7% less than the recent peak in May 2020 and 33.9% more than the pre-pandemic count in March 2020. The increases in the claimant count between March 2020 and May 2020 can largely be attributed to the increase in the numbers of people becoming unemployed or having their hours reduced due to COVID, resulting in very low earnings below the administrative earnings threshold. The claimant count rate is unchanged from the revised rate for November 2024. The increases seen between May 2024 and September 2024 are largely due to the increase in the administrative earnings threshold for Universal Credit. More information on this change can be found in the Press Statement released by the Department for Work and Pensions on 13 May 2024.

The NI seasonally adjusted claimant count was 40,000 (4.1% of the workforce) in December 2024, representing:

  • a decrease of 600 (1.4%) over the month
  • an increase of 3,900 (11.0%) over the year, and
  • an increase of 10,100 (33.9%) since March 2020.

Changes by sex:

  • a decrease of 0.7% in males and a decrease of 2.2% in females over the month, and
  • an increase of 3.8% in males and an increase of 20.6% in females over the year.

Changes by age:

  • Over the year, there has been a 3.5% decrease in claimants aged 16 to 24, with increases in claimants aged 25 to 49 (14.3%) and those aged 50 and over (16.0%).
  • Compared to the pre-pandemic counts in March 2020, there has been a decrease in the number of claimants in the 16-24 age-band (2.5%), with increases for the 25 to 49 (46.6%) and the 50 and over (21.9%) age-bands.

Changes by Local Government District:

  • Over the year, there have been increases in all Local Government Districts, with the largest increases seen in Fermanagh and Omagh (28.8%) and Mid Ulster (25.9%).

UK regional comparison:

  • The UK seasonally adjusted claimant count was unchanged over the month at 1,743,800 (4.6% of the workforce).
  • The UK count is 35.4% below the recent peak in August 2020 and 41.8% above the pre-pandemic count in March 2020.

2.3 Redundancies

Redundancies: Companies must inform the Department of (a) impending redundancies of 20 or more employees and (b) subsequent confirmed redundancies. Since all proposed redundancies do not actually take place, the confirmed total provides a better indication of real job losses.

Key findings

  • 240 redundancies were confirmed in December 2024, taking the annual total to 1,840, which was approximately seventy percent of the figure for the previous year (2,600).
  • In the latest 12-month period, there were 2,980 proposed redundancies, which was also approximately seventy percent of the total for the previous year.

Figure 3: Latest annual total of proposed and confirmed redundancies considerably lower than previous year

NI confirmed and proposed redundancies, Annual totals, Jan 2009-Dec 2009 to Jan 2024-Dec 2024
Chart
Table
Year Proposed Confirmed
2008/09 5,580 4,600
2009/10 3,210 2,100
2010/11 2,060 1,810
2011/12 4,420 3,350
2012/13 2,190 2,130
2013/14 4,400 2,140
2014/15 4,220 1,950
2015/16 3,560 3,650
2016/17 2,810 1,790
2017/18 3,890 2,500
2018/19 4,050 3,200
2019/20 11,000 5,030
2020/21 1,940 2,840
2021/22 1,570 730
2022/23 4,300 2,600
2023/24 2,980 1,840


Redundancy notification data generally shows a high degree of correlation between proposed and confirmed redundancies when grouped by year. The graph above shows that, generally the number of proposed redundancies is higher than confirmed redundancies, indicating that not all proposed redundancies take place.

The December 2024 total of confirmed redundancies (240) was well above the monthly average for 2024 as a whole (150) and was similar to the average seen in 2023 (220). The rolling twelve-month total (1,840), although showing an increase from last month, is still below the totals seen over the previous year.

The rolling twelve-month total of proposed redundancies was 2,980 and is similar to the totals seen over the last six months. The monthly average of proposed redundancies for 2024 was 250, which is considerably less than the monthly average seen in 2023 (360).

Confirmed redundancies

During December 2024, the Department was notified of:

  • 240 confirmed redundancies, around three-fifths higher than the monthly average for 2024 as a whole (150).

Over the last twelve months, to the end of December 2024, there were:

  • 1,840 confirmed redundancies, approximately seventy percent of the figure for the previous year (2,600).
  • 430 confirmed redundancies (23.6%) in the manufacturing sector.
  • 430 confirmed redundancies (23.4%) in the education sector.
  • 390 confirmed redundancies (21.3%) in the financial and insurance activities sector.

Proposed redundancies

In line with the statistical disclosure control policy to prevent identification of individual businesses, redundancy totals relating to fewer than 3 businesses are not disclosed. As such, the number of proposed redundancies for the month of December cannot be disclosed.

Over the last twelve months, to the end of December 2024, there were:

  • 2,980 proposed redundancies, which was around seventy percent of the figure for the previous year (4,300).
  • 710 proposed redundancies (23.9%) in the manufacturing sector.
  • 550 proposed redundancies (18.5%) in the financial and insurance activities sector.
  • 400 proposed redundancies (13.6%) in the information and communication sector.


3. Employment

3.1 LFS employment

LFS employed: people aged 16 or over who did at least one hour of paid work in the reference week (whether as an employee or self-employed); those who had a paid job that they were temporarily away from; those on government-supported training and employee programmes and those doing unpaid family work.

Key findings

  • The NI employment rate for September-November 2024 increased over both the quarter and year to 72.6%.
  • The most recent UK employment rate for September-November 2024 was estimated at 74.8%.

Figure 4: Similar trend in NI and UK employment rates over the last 15 years

Seasonally adjusted employment rate (Aged 16 to 64), Sep-Nov 2009 to Sep-Nov 2024
Chart

Note: graph has a non-zero axis

Table
Date Northern Ireland United Kingdom
Sep-Nov 2009 65.5 70.6
Dec-Feb 2010 66.2 70.3
Mar-May 2010 66.0 70.4
Jun-Aug 2010 66.4 70.6
Sep-Nov 2010 65.2 70.3
Dec-Feb 2011 66.6 70.6
Mar-May 2011 67.9 70.5
Jun-Aug 2011 67.3 70.2
Sep-Nov 2011 67.8 70.1
Dec-Feb 2012 67.7 70.3
Mar-May 2012 67.5 70.7
Jun-Aug 2012 66.7 71.2
Sep-Nov 2012 67.2 71.3
Dec-Feb 2013 66.1 71.2
Mar-May 2013 66.6 71.2
Jun-Aug 2013 66.6 71.5
Sep-Nov 2013 67.4 72.0
Dec-Feb 2014 67.5 72.4
Mar-May 2014 68.1 72.9
Jun-Aug 2014 68.2 73.0
Sep-Nov 2014 67.8 73.0
Dec-Feb 2015 68.4 73.4
Mar-May 2015 67.7 73.3
Jun-Aug 2015 67.9 73.5
Sep-Nov 2015 68.8 74.0
Dec-Feb 2016 68.8 74.1
Mar-May 2016 69.0 74.3
Jun-Aug 2016 70.1 74.4
Sep-Nov 2016 69.2 74.4
Dec-Feb 2017 68.7 74.6
Mar-May 2017 68.8 74.8
Jun-Aug 2017 68.4 75.1
Sep-Nov 2017 69.0 75.2
Dec-Feb 2018 69.4 75.3
Mar-May 2018 70.0 75.5
Jun-Aug 2018 69.8 75.4
Sep-Nov 2018 69.8 75.6
Dec-Feb 2019 71.2 76.0
Mar-May 2019 71.9 76.0
Jun-Aug 2019 71.3 75.9
Sep-Nov 2019 72.7 76.2
Dec-Feb 2020 72.4 76.5
Mar-May 2020 70.2 75.5
Jun-Aug 2020 69.5 75.0
Sep-Nov 2020 69.0 74.5
Dec-Feb 2021 68.6 74.5
Mar-May 2021 68.7 74.5
Jun-Aug 2021 69.1 74.9
Sep-Nov 2021 68.2 75.0
Dec-Feb 2022 69.0 75.0
Mar-May 2022 70.1 75.4
Jun-Aug 2022 70.3 75.0
Sep-Nov 2022 71.4 75.0
Dec-Feb 2023 71.9 75.2
Mar-May 2023 71.9 75.5
Jun-Aug 2023 72.0 74.7
Sep-Nov 2023 72.5 74.9
Dec-Feb 2024 72.8 74.6
Mar-May 2024 72.7 74.4
Jun-Aug 2024 72.2 75.0
Sep-Nov 2024 72.6 74.8


Figure 4 shows that, over the last 15 years, the NI employment rate has been consistently below the UK rate. Although showing a similar trend, the fall in the employment rate in NI between 2019 and 2021 was steeper than the fall in the UK rate. When compared to the pre-pandemic rates recorded in December-February 2020, the most recent NI employment rate was 0.2pps above the NI pre-pandemic rate of 72.4%, while the UK rate was 1.6pps below the UK pre-pandemic rate of 76.5%.

The most recent NI employment rate (aged 16 to 64) for the period September-November 2024 was estimated at 72.6%. This was:

  • an increase of 0.5pps over the quarter (not statistically significant); and
  • an increase of 0.2pps over the year (not statistically significant);

The number of employed people (age 16 and over) in NI was estimated at 900,000, which was:

  • up 1,000 from last quarter; and
  • up 8,000 from the same period last year.

Annual changes by sex (for those aged 16 to 64) showed that:

  • the male employment rate (76.0%) increased by 0.1pps over the year; and
  • the female employment rate (69.4%) increased by 0.2pps over the year.

UK regional comparison:

  • The NI employment rate (aged 16 to 64) of 72.6% was 2.2pps below the most recent UK rate of 74.8%.
  • the fourth lowest of the twelve UK regions.

Please note that the following estimates are not adjusted for seasonality.

Self-employment:

  • In September-November 2024, there were 115,000 self-employed, a decrease of 2,000 (1.4%) on a year ago, and 23,000 lower (-16.6%) than the pre-pandemic figure in December-February 2020.
  • The proportion who were self-employed (12.8%) remains below the pre-pandemic proportion (15.5% recorded in December-February 2020).

Employment by Age:

  • In September-November 2024, those aged 35 to 49 had the highest employment rate (84.3%), whilst those aged 16 to 24 had the lowest (51.9%).
  • Compared to the pre-pandemic rates in December-February 2020, the employment rate for those aged 35 to 49 saw the largest increase (by 0.9pps, from 83.4% to 84.3%), whilst the rate for those aged 16 to 24 saw the largest decrease (by -2.9pps, from 54.8% to 51.9%).

3.2 Total weekly hours

Please note that the following estimates are not adjusted for seasonality.

Key findings

  • The total number of weekly hours worked in September-November 2024 was estimated at 30.3 million hours per week.
  • This was an increase of 5.3% on the previous quarter and an increase of 2.6% on the same period last year.

Figure 5: Total hours worked similar to series high

Total weekly hours worked (Age 16 and over), Sep-Nov 2009 to Sep-Nov 2024
Chart

Note: graph has a non-zero axis

Table
Date Total weekly hours
Sep-Nov 2009 26.0
Dec-Feb 2010 25.3
Mar-May 2010 26.0
Jun-Aug 2010 24.6
Sep-Nov 2010 26.2
Dec-Feb 2011 25.3
Mar-May 2011 26.4
Jun-Aug 2011 25.1
Sep-Nov 2011 26.9
Dec-Feb 2012 25.6
Mar-May 2012 26.6
Jun-Aug 2012 25.7
Sep-Nov 2012 27.5
Dec-Feb 2013 25.5
Mar-May 2013 26.7
Jun-Aug 2013 26.0
Sep-Nov 2013 27.3
Dec-Feb 2014 26.3
Mar-May 2014 27.7
Jun-Aug 2014 26.7
Sep-Nov 2014 27.9
Dec-Feb 2015 27.5
Mar-May 2015 27.0
Jun-Aug 2015 25.8
Sep-Nov 2015 28.1
Dec-Feb 2016 26.4
Mar-May 2016 27.3
Jun-Aug 2016 26.6
Sep-Nov 2016 27.9
Dec-Feb 2017 27.1
Mar-May 2017 27.6
Jun-Aug 2017 26.6
Sep-Nov 2017 28.6
Dec-Feb 2018 28.0
Mar-May 2018 28.6
Jun-Aug 2018 27.9
Sep-Nov 2018 28.7
Dec-Feb 2019 28.6
Mar-May 2019 29.9
Jun-Aug 2019 29.0
Sep-Nov 2019 30.5
Dec-Feb 2020 29.0
Mar-May 2020 23.2
Jun-Aug 2020 24.9
Sep-Nov 2020 26.9
Dec-Feb 2021 25.4
Mar-May 2021 26.3
Jun-Aug 2021 26.4
Sep-Nov 2021 27.8
Dec-Feb 2022 26.9
Mar-May 2022 28.3
Jun-Aug 2022 26.9
Sep-Nov 2022 28.9
Dec-Feb 2023 28.3
Mar-May 2023 28.9
Jun-Aug 2023 28.1
Sep-Nov 2023 29.5
Dec-Feb 2024 28.5
Mar-May 2024 29.4
Jun-Aug 2024 28.8
Sep-Nov 2024 30.3


Figure 5 illustrates that, like many labour market indicators, total weekly hours worked shows a seasonal pattern. Outside of these seasonal variations, a trend of increasing weekly hours worked can be seen between 2009 and the end of 2019, prior to a sharp fall between December-February 2020 and March-May 2020. From early-2021 onwards, the increasing trend returned at a steeper rate than before the pandemic. Hours worked in September-November 2024 remained just 0.5% below the peak in this series of 30.5 million hours in September-November 2019.

The total number of weekly hours worked in NI in September-November 2024 was estimated at 30.3 million hours, this was:

  • an increase of 1.5 million hours (5.3%) on the previous quarter;
  • an increase of 0.8 million hours (2.6%) from the same period last year (not statistically significant); and
  • 1.3 million hours, or 4.6%, above the pre-pandemic (December-February 2020) figure.

The average number of weekly hours worked in September-November 2024 was estimated at 38.0 hours for those in full-time employment, and at 17.8 hours for those in part-time employment (for main jobs only, any second jobs are excluded). By sex:

  • for those in full-time employment, the average weekly hours worked for males was 40.0 hours, whereas for females it was 35.1 hours.
  • for those in part-time employment, the average weekly hours worked for males was 18.1 hours, whereas for females it was 17.7 hours.

3.3 Employees (experimental) from HMRC PAYE RTI

Payrolled employee counts (experimental) from the HMRC’s Pay As You Earn (PAYE) Real Time Information (RTI) system relate to employees paid by employers only, and do not include those who are self-employed. Data are based on where employees live and not the location of their place of work within the UK. As employees who were “furloughed” as part of the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme programme should still have had their payments reported through this system, they should feature in these data.

Key findings

  • The number of payrolled employees in NI decreased by 0.3% over the month and increased by 0.6% over the year to December 2024.
  • In the UK, the number of payrolled employees decreased by 0.2% over the month and was unchanged over the year to December 2024.

Figure 6: Number of payrolled employees decreased over the month

NI payrolled employees (experimental) from PAYE RTI, July 2014 to December 2024
Chart

Note: graph has a non-zero axis

Table
Date Northern Ireland
Jul 2014 674,344
Aug 2014 675,868
Sep 2014 676,850
Oct 2014 677,826
Nov 2014 679,772
Dec 2014 679,794
Jan 2015 684,486
Feb 2015 686,959
Mar 2015 688,279
Apr 2015 690,742
May 2015 691,743
Jun 2015 694,318
Jul 2015 696,252
Aug 2015 697,510
Sep 2015 700,125
Oct 2015 700,645
Nov 2015 701,485
Dec 2015 701,334
Jan 2016 702,941
Feb 2016 703,672
Mar 2016 704,723
Apr 2016 704,342
May 2016 705,468
Jun 2016 705,555
Jul 2016 706,348
Aug 2016 707,918
Sep 2016 709,313
Oct 2016 710,479
Nov 2016 713,250
Dec 2016 713,809
Jan 2017 712,821
Feb 2017 714,785
Mar 2017 716,264
Apr 2017 716,518
May 2017 718,831
Jun 2017 720,528
Jul 2017 721,169
Aug 2017 722,698
Sep 2017 724,078
Oct 2017 725,359
Nov 2017 726,653
Dec 2017 729,950
Jan 2018 729,808
Feb 2018 731,249
Mar 2018 731,913
Apr 2018 732,994
May 2018 734,480
Jun 2018 735,284
Jul 2018 736,496
Aug 2018 738,088
Sep 2018 739,304
Oct 2018 740,939
Nov 2018 741,729
Dec 2018 742,943
Jan 2019 744,136
Feb 2019 744,982
Mar 2019 746,556
Apr 2019 746,761
May 2019 747,555
Jun 2019 746,559
Jul 2019 748,544
Aug 2019 748,951
Sep 2019 749,522
Oct 2019 749,850
Nov 2019 751,401
Dec 2019 751,833
Jan 2020 753,534
Feb 2020 754,658
Mar 2020 754,913
Apr 2020 743,343
May 2020 742,808
Jun 2020 742,202
Jul 2020 743,105
Aug 2020 739,058
Sep 2020 739,220
Oct 2020 738,425
Nov 2020 736,801
Dec 2020 737,842
Jan 2021 739,743
Feb 2021 740,199
Mar 2021 741,569
Apr 2021 742,332
May 2021 748,679
Jun 2021 755,308
Jul 2021 761,124
Aug 2021 760,937
Sep 2021 762,111
Oct 2021 763,227
Nov 2021 765,699
Dec 2021 768,485
Jan 2022 770,640
Feb 2022 771,637
Mar 2022 773,443
Apr 2022 774,598
May 2022 776,282
Jun 2022 775,880
Jul 2022 777,763
Aug 2022 780,714
Sep 2022 780,090
Oct 2022 781,092
Nov 2022 782,553
Dec 2022 784,713
Jan 2023 785,123
Feb 2023 786,616
Mar 2023 789,607
Apr 2023 789,210
May 2023 789,605
Jun 2023 790,146
Jul 2023 790,819
Aug 2023 792,485
Sep 2023 794,469
Oct 2023 796,288
Nov 2023 796,845
Dec 2023 798,332
Jan 2024 798,935
Feb 2024 799,479
Mar 2024 799,777
Apr 2024 801,412
May 2024 803,617
Jun 2024 805,675
Jul 2024 805,989
Aug 2024 805,734
Sep 2024 805,875
Oct 2024 805,743
Nov 2024 805,705
Dec 2024 802,998


Please note:

  1. The flash estimate for the latest period is based on early data and is therefore more likely to be subject to revisions.

Between 2014 and 2020, the number of payrolled employees had generally been increasing each month, peaking at around 755,000 in March 2020. This was followed by a decrease of almost 12,000 employees (1.5%) to April 2020. Employee numbers then remained at a similar level until April 2021 when they returned to a general upward trend once again. From June 2024 to November 2024, the number of payrolled employees remained around 806,000, before dropping by 2,700 (0.3%) in the most recent month, marking the largest decrease since August 2020.

Data from the latest HMRC PAYE RTI show that:

  • 803,000 people were payrolled employees in December 2024, a 0.3% decrease from the previous month and a 0.6% increase over the year.
  • In the UK, there were 30,339,700 payrolled employees in December 2024, a 0.2% decrease from the previous month and unchanged over the year.
  • Over the year, there were decreases recorded in five of the UK regions. Scotland recorded the largest decrease (0.5%) while Northern Ireland had the largest increase of 0.6%.
  • Between March 2020 and December 2024, all regions of the UK recorded an increase in payrolled employees (4.6% overall). Northern Ireland recorded the largest increase (6.4%) while Scotland recorded the lowest (2.9%).

3.4 Earnings (experimental) from HMRC PAYE RTI

Median measures the amount earned by the average employee, i.e. the level of earnings at which half the population are above and half the population are below.

Key findings

  • Median monthly pay in NI increased by 0.1% (£2) over the month to £2,291 in December 2024 and increased by 6.5% (£139) over the year.
  • UK median monthly pay decreased by 0.8% (£21) over the month to £2,457 in December 2024 and increased by 5.6% (£131) over the year.

Figure 7: Over the month median monthly pay increased in NI and decreased in the UK

Median Monthly Pay (experimental) from PAYE RTI, July 2014 to December 2024
Chart

Note: graph has a non-zero axis

Table
Date Northern Ireland UK
Jul 2014 1490 1598
Aug 2014 1488 1602
Sep 2014 1489 1601
Oct 2014 1493 1605
Nov 2014 1499 1607
Dec 2014 1517 1617
Jan 2015 1500 1620
Feb 2015 1495 1620
Mar 2015 1501 1618
Apr 2015 1498 1613
May 2015 1498 1615
Jun 2015 1492 1617
Jul 2015 1493 1620
Aug 2015 1489 1617
Sep 2015 1495 1619
Oct 2015 1496 1626
Nov 2015 1495 1629
Dec 2015 1500 1631
Jan 2016 1503 1638
Feb 2016 1509 1640
Mar 2016 1520 1645
Apr 2016 1513 1651
May 2016 1515 1652
Jun 2016 1516 1654
Jul 2016 1521 1659
Aug 2016 1528 1660
Sep 2016 1529 1664
Oct 2016 1523 1663
Nov 2016 1532 1666
Dec 2016 1533 1667
Jan 2017 1535 1668
Feb 2017 1535 1677
Mar 2017 1544 1686
Apr 2017 1545 1688
May 2017 1546 1690
Jun 2017 1556 1695
Jul 2017 1556 1693
Aug 2017 1562 1700
Sep 2017 1565 1704
Oct 2017 1566 1706
Nov 2017 1575 1713
Dec 2017 1583 1721
Jan 2018 1572 1725
Feb 2018 1592 1728
Mar 2018 1590 1729
Apr 2018 1587 1729
May 2018 1605 1749
Jun 2018 1611 1756
Jul 2018 1614 1751
Aug 2018 1621 1772
Sep 2018 1622 1761
Oct 2018 1632 1767
Nov 2018 1638 1778
Dec 2018 1639 1772
Jan 2019 1649 1784
Feb 2019 1690 1791
Mar 2019 1657 1799
Apr 2019 1670 1808
May 2019 1681 1815
Jun 2019 1674 1812
Jul 2019 1682 1819
Aug 2019 1683 1826
Sep 2019 1687 1820
Oct 2019 1693 1825
Nov 2019 1689 1830
Dec 2019 1683 1836
Jan 2020 1704 1852
Feb 2020 1712 1861
Mar 2020 1740 1845
Apr 2020 1657 1791
May 2020 1665 1798
Jun 2020 1709 1829
Jul 2020 1742 1859
Aug 2020 1747 1881
Sep 2020 1769 1900
Oct 2020 1779 1911
Nov 2020 1781 1913
Dec 2020 1796 1925
Jan 2021 1786 1930
Feb 2021 1793 1942
Mar 2021 1797 1948
Apr 2021 1811 1963
May 2021 1805 1962
Jun 2021 1824 1975
Jul 2021 1877 1979
Aug 2021 1821 1987
Sep 2021 1852 2007
Oct 2021 1859 2009
Nov 2021 1859 2016
Dec 2021 1917 2036
Jan 2022 1939 2050
Feb 2022 1917 2054
Mar 2022 1926 2075
Apr 2022 1938 2078
May 2022 1939 2084
Jun 2022 1941 2103
Jul 2022 1955 2110
Aug 2022 1972 2119
Sep 2022 1969 2147
Oct 2022 1986 2146
Nov 2022 2012 2190
Dec 2022 2025 2190
Jan 2023 2044 2195
Feb 2023 2055 2208
Mar 2023 2109 2215
Apr 2023 2061 2227
May 2023 2071 2253
Jun 2023 2080 2302
Jul 2023 2081 2268
Aug 2023 2089 2278
Sep 2023 2100 2274
Oct 2023 2110 2277
Nov 2023 2129 2328
Dec 2023 2152 2326
Jan 2024 2139 2336
Feb 2024 2156 2345
Mar 2024 2169 2355
Apr 2024 2192 2374
May 2024 2235 2386
Jun 2024 2317 2389
Jul 2024 2238 2401
Aug 2024 2306 2413
Sep 2024 2249 2410
Oct 2024 2277 2458
Nov 2024 2289 2478
Dec 2024 2291 2457


Please note:

  1. The flash estimate for the latest period is based on early data and is therefore more likely to be subject to revisions.

Median monthly pay in NI and the UK increased overall between mid-2015 and early 2020. In NI, an increase of 1.6% in median pay was recorded between February and March 2020, followed by a decrease of 4.8% between March and April 2020. The UK also saw a decrease between March and April 2020 of 2.9%. These monthly decreases coincided with decreases in the number of paid employees recorded in April 2020. Over the past six months, there have been two major rises in median earnings, followed by comparable decreases, which aligned with local pay awards. However, the past three months have seen a return to a consistent upward trend.

Data from the latest HMRC PAYE RTI show that:

  • NI had a median monthly pay of £2,291 in December 2024, which was an increase of 0.1% on the previous month and an increase of 6.5% over the year.
  • UK had a median monthly pay of £2,457 in December 2024, which was a decrease of 0.8% on the previous month and an increase of 5.6% from December 2023.
  • NI had the second largest annual increase of the 12 UK regions, but was the lowest earning region in the UK in December 2024. London had the highest median pay (£2,906).
  • Since March 2020, earnings in NI have increased by 31.7%, 1.5 pps less than the increase in the UK (33.2%) and the third lowest of all the UK regions.


4. Economic inactivity

4.1 LFS Economic inactivity

Economically inactive: People not in employment who have not been seeking work within the last 4 weeks and/or are unable to start work within the next 2 weeks.

Key findings

  • The NI economic inactivity rate decreased over the quarter and increased over the year to 26.1%.
  • The most recent UK economic inactivity rate for September-November 2024 was estimated at 21.6%.

Figure 8: NI economic inactivity consistently above UK average

Seasonally adjusted economic inactivity rates (Aged 16 to 64), Sep-Nov 2009 to Sep-Nov 2024
Chart

Note: graph has a non-zero axis

Table
Date Northern Ireland United Kingdom
Sep-Nov 2009 29.7 23.4
Dec-Feb 2010 29.1 23.6
Mar-May 2010 28.9 23.4
Jun-Aug 2010 28.6 23.3
Sep-Nov 2010 29.1 23.5
Dec-Feb 2011 28.1 23.3
Mar-May 2011 26.8 23.4
Jun-Aug 2011 27.0 23.4
Sep-Nov 2011 27.2 23.2
Dec-Feb 2012 27.4 23.2
Mar-May 2012 27.4 23.0
Jun-Aug 2012 27.2 22.6
Sep-Nov 2012 27.0 22.5
Dec-Feb 2013 27.9 22.5
Mar-May 2013 27.7 22.7
Jun-Aug 2013 27.9 22.4
Sep-Nov 2013 27.1 22.3
Dec-Feb 2014 26.8 22.2
Mar-May 2014 26.9 22.0
Jun-Aug 2014 27.1 22.2
Sep-Nov 2014 27.8 22.4
Dec-Feb 2015 27.0 22.1
Mar-May 2015 27.7 22.2
Jun-Aug 2015 27.6 22.2
Sep-Nov 2015 26.6 21.9
Dec-Feb 2016 26.4 21.8
Mar-May 2016 26.7 21.7
Jun-Aug 2016 25.7 21.6
Sep-Nov 2016 26.4 21.8
Dec-Feb 2017 27.4 21.7
Mar-May 2017 27.4 21.6
Jun-Aug 2017 28.2 21.5
Sep-Nov 2017 28.0 21.3
Dec-Feb 2018 28.1 21.3
Mar-May 2018 27.4 21.1
Jun-Aug 2018 27.2 21.3
Sep-Nov 2018 27.5 21.1
Dec-Feb 2019 26.6 20.8
Mar-May 2019 25.8 20.9
Jun-Aug 2019 26.6 20.9
Sep-Nov 2019 25.6 20.7
Dec-Feb 2020 25.7 20.3
Mar-May 2020 27.7 21.2
Jun-Aug 2020 27.7 21.3
Sep-Nov 2020 28.3 21.3
Dec-Feb 2021 28.6 21.5
Mar-May 2021 28.4 21.7
Jun-Aug 2021 27.7 21.5
Sep-Nov 2021 29.2 21.6
Dec-Feb 2022 28.8 21.8
Mar-May 2022 28.1 21.6
Jun-Aug 2022 27.5 22.1
Sep-Nov 2022 26.6 21.9
Dec-Feb 2023 26.4 21.7
Mar-May 2023 26.5 21.3
Jun-Aug 2023 26.4 21.9
Sep-Nov 2023 25.7 22.0
Dec-Feb 2024 25.6 22.1
Mar-May 2024 26.0 22.0
Jun-Aug 2024 26.6 21.8
Sep-Nov 2024 26.1 21.6


Figure 8 shows that, over the last 15 years, economic inactivity in NI has been consistently higher than the UK average, with more variability in economic inactivity in NI than the UK. Economic inactivity in NI peaked during this time-period in 2009 at almost 30%, compared to the lower peak in the UK rate of almost 24% at the beginning of 2010.

During the ten years to 2019, the trend for both the UK and NI economic inactivity rates was generally downward. From the onset of the COVID pandemic, both UK and NI economic inactivity rates increased. Since early-2021 however, the trends have varied, whilst the UK rate has trended upwards until early 2024 with a downward trend since, the NI rate trended downwards until the start of 2024 with a general upward trend since. Over the last year, the economic inactivity rate in NI has seen an increase of 0.4pps whilst the UK rate has seen a decrease of 0.4pps. The most recent economic inactivity rates for NI (26.1%) and the UK (21.6%) were 0.4pps and 1.3pps above their pre-pandemic equivalents in December-February 2020.

The NI economic inactivity rate (aged 16 to 64) for September-November 2024 was estimated at 26.1%, which was:

  • a decrease of 0.4pps over the quarter (not statistically significant); and
  • an increase of 0.4pps over the year (not statistically significant).

The number of economically inactive people (age 16 and over) in NI was estimated at 611,000, which was:

  • up 3,000 from last quarter; and
  • up 11,000 from the same period last year.

Annual changes by sex (for those aged 16 to 64) showed:

  • an increase of 0.7pps over the year in the male economic inactivity rate to 22.4%; and
  • an increase of 0.1pps over the year in the female economic inactivity rate to 29.7%.

UK regional comparison:

  • The NI economic inactivity rate (aged 16 to 64) of 26.1% was 4.5pps above the most recent UK rate of 21.6%.
  • the highest of the twelve UK regions.

Please note that the following estimates are not adjusted for seasonality.

Reasons for inactivity:

  • In September-November 2024, the most common reason for economic inactivity among the working age population was ‘long-term sick’. There were 123,000 ‘long-term sick’, accounting for 39.3% of the total economically inactive (aged 16 to 64), or 10.3% of the working age population. This was an increase of 5,000 (+4.0%) from the same period last year.
  • Compared to the pre-pandemic figures in December-February 2020, there has been an increase in the number of ‘long-term sick’ (+22,000) and ‘student’ (+8,000), however the totals for ‘family and home care’ (-15,000) and ‘retired’ (-5,000) have decreased.

Inactivity by Age:

  • In September-November 2024, those aged 65 and over (300,000) made up the highest proportion (49.0%) of the total economically inactive (age 16 and over), with those aged 25 to 34 (39,000) making up the lowest proportion (6.3%) across the age groups.
  • Those aged 65 and over had the highest economic inactivity rate (88.7%), whilst those aged 35 to 49 had the lowest (15.0%). These rates are similar to the pre-pandemic rates in December-February 2020 (89.9% and 15.1% respectively).


5. Further Information

General Information

The Labour Market Report is a monthly overview of key labour market statistics for NI. It includes figures from the Labour Force Survey (LFS), claimant count, redundancies counts, and HMRC PAYE statistics. The LMR also contains an overview from the Quarterly Employment Survey (QES) in March, June, September and December. More information about the data sources can be found in the LMR Supplementary Document.

Comparison between data sources

Although the broad concepts are similar across sources contained within this release, differences in reference periods, definitions, and methodology exist which impact the interpretation of the statistics. Additional information can be found in the LMR supplementary document, including comparisons between:

  • LFS unemployment and experimental claimant count
  • LFS employment and the number of paid employees from HMRC PAYE RTI
  • LFS employment and QES employee jobs
  • HMRC PAYE RTI and Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings (ASHE)
  • Quarterly Employment Survey (QES) and HMRC PAYE RTI

More information is also available in the comparison of labour market data sources article by ONS.

Seasonal adjustment

All estimates discussed in this report are seasonally adjusted unless otherwise stated. Seasonal adjustment removes the effects of seasonal factors and the arrangement of the calendar and allows comparison over months or quarters.

Reporting change and sampling variability

Reported change is calculated using unrounded data and is presented to 1 decimal place. When a change is less than 0.05pps, it is rounded to 0.0pps and the data is reported as unchanged.

The Labour Force Survey (LFS) is a sample survey. Estimates obtained from it are subject to sampling variability which means if we drew many samples, each would give a different result. The sampling variability of the Northern Ireland estimates can be found in Table 2.49 of the LFS monthly tables, published alongside this report on the NISRA website. We would expect that in 95% of samples the range would contain the true value.

Alternative release time

The NI Labour Market Report is released at 7am. This is an ‘alternative release time’ agreed by the Office for Statistics Regulation and differs from the standard 9.30am release time for the majority of statistical reports.

Labour Force Survey

Response rates

The methodology for determining the response rate for the NI LFS has been revised to follow the same methodology as that used in ONS. This allows for the comparability of the response rate against the UK.

The achieved sample size for the Northern Ireland Labour Force Survey during July to September 2024 was 2,281, a decrease of 7.5% from the same period last year.

Table 1: LFS Response rates, October-December 2021 to July to September 2024

Period NI Response Rate (%) UK Response Rate (%)
October-December 2021 28.2 26.6
January-March 2022 33.3 27.2
April-June 2022 43.3 27.8
July-September 2022 46.4 26.1
October-December 2022 47.4 23.6
January-March 2023 48.0 21.5
April-June 2023 47.4 19.6
July-September 2023 43.9 17.4
October-December 2023 41.9 18.8
January-March 2024 36.1 21.3
April-June 2024 33.2 23.1
July-September 2024 30.8 24.6

Please note, response rates are updated quarterly.

LFS revisions

LFS microdata are routinely revised to incorporate the latest population estimates. The population totals for January-March 2020 to June-August 2022, however, used projected growth rates from RTI data for UK, EU and non-EU populations based on 2021 patterns. The total population used at that time for the LFS therefore did not take into account any changes in migration, birth rates, death rates etc. since June 2021 and hence the estimates of levels may have been under- or over-estimating the true values and should be used with caution. Estimates of rates for this period will, however, be robust.

The latest reweighting was introduced in December 2024, affecting data from January-March 2019 to July-September 2024 to make use of more recent population estimates. An overview of the impact of reweighting on the NI estimates of unemployment, employment, and economic inactivity is available on the NISRA website. Previous reweightings occurred in October 2020, July 2021, June 2022 and February 2024.

LFS comparisons

Estimates of employment, unemployment, and economic inactivity are derived from the LFS. The most robust estimates of short-term movements in these estimates are obtained by comparing the estimates over separate three-month periods, commonly known as 3 month rolling averages. For example, estimates relating to September-November 2024 should be compared with the estimates for June-August 2024. This provides a more robust estimate than comparing with the estimates for August-October 2024, as the September and October data are included within both estimates. The LFS is sampled such that it is representative of the NI population over a three-month period, not for a single month period.

Suppression and shading

Estimates based on fewer than 3 events are suppressed to prevent disclosure. In tables, shading is used to draw attention to lower statistical quality/precision of estimates that are based on a smaller sample size. Shaded estimates still provide the best estimate of the size of a group but comparison across time or between groups with similar values should be avoided. Unshaded estimates are based on a larger sample size. This is likely to result in estimates of higher precision, although they will still be subject to some sampling variability.

Due to the small sample sizes and the effect this may have on the precision of the figures, estimates for long-term unemployment, youth unemployment and annual changes in unemployment by sex have not been included in this bulletin this month.

Claimant Count

Experimental claimant count

This measure is categorised as experimental as the statistics are in the testing phase and not yet fully developed. ONS have produced a useful guide to official statistics in development, and an FAQ document explaining the difference between the previous measure and this experimental measure is available on the changes to the claimant count page.

Claimant count revisions

Seasonally adjusted estimates are revised on a regular basis. Each month the previous estimate is revised in line with the current seasonal adjustment model, giving the best estimate of change for the latest period.

Also, a seasonal adjustment review takes place once a year. Typically, the last 3 years are revised and this takes the most recent year of data into account when determining the seasonal adjustment model. These revisions affect only the seasonally adjusted data.

Claimant count undercount correction note

A number of claims across the UK to the UC element of the Claimant Count were coded to incorrect locations for data relating to December 2018 to November 2019. This has been corrected for December 2019 onwards, but previous periods remain affected. The impact of the revision on NI for December 2019 was an increase of fewer than 1,000 cases.

Percentage of workforce

The number of claimants as a percentage of workforce jobs plus claimants. Workforce jobs are the sum of employee jobs, self-employment jobs, HM Forces, and government-supported trainees. This measure is only available at the NI level.

Redundancies

To prevent the potential identification of individual businesses, redundancy totals relating to fewer than 3 businesses are not disclosed. The Statistical Disclosure Control Policy is available on the NISRA website.

HMRC PAYE Real Time Information

Age breakdowns are published in January, April, July and October, and industry sector breakdowns published in February, May, August and November. Data are subject to revisions.

Further information on UK monthly pay, UK pay distribution, methodology, data source, collection, and coverage of PAYE RTI data, as well as information on imputation and revisions can be found on the Earnings and employment from PAYE page.


The Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency wishes to thank the participating households and businesses for their co-operation in agreeing to take part in the surveys and for facilitating the collection of the relevant data.


6. Contacts

For further information contact:

Labour Force Survey, Claimant Count, and Redundancies

Mark McFetridge
Email:

HMRC PAYE

Brian Grogan
Email:


Web: Labour Market and Social Welfare
Twitter / X: NISRA

Accredited Official Statistics logo

7. Accredited Official Statistics Status

These official statistics were independently reviewed by the Office for Statistics Regulation in August 2010 following a full assessment of Labour Market Statistics for Northern Ireland against the Code of Practice for Statistics. They comply with the standards of trustworthiness, quality and value in the Code of Practice for Statistics and are therefore labelled as accredited official statistics. Accredited official statistics are called National Statistics in the Statistics and Registration Service Act 2007. For further information, please refer to the Office for Statistics Regulation accredited official statistics webpage.

As outlined above, our statistical practice is regulated by the Office for Statistics Regulation (OSR).

OSR sets the standards of trustworthiness, quality and value in the Code of Practice for Statistics that all producers of official statistics should adhere to.

You are welcome to contact us directly with any comments about how we meet these standards using the details in Section 6.

Alternatively, you can contact OSR by emailing or via the OSR website.