Labour Market Statistics

Date published: 17 December 2024

Payrolled employees unchanged over the month and median earnings increased

• The number of employees receiving pay through HMRC PAYE in NI in November 2024 was 806,200, unchanged over the month and an increase 1.1% over the year.
• Earnings data from HMRC PAYE indicated that NI employees had a median monthly pay of £2,288 in November 2024, an increase of £11 (0.5%) over the month and an increase of £158 (7.4%) over the year.
• The estimates from HMRC PAYE for the latest period, are based on provisional 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 August-October 2024 was estimated from the Labour Force Survey at 1.6%. This represents a decrease of 0.3 percentage points (pps) over the quarter and a decrease of 0.4pps over the year.
• The proportion of people aged 16 to 64 in work (the employment rate) decreased by 0.4pps over the quarter and decreased by 0.5pps over the year to 72.3%.
• The total number of weekly hours worked in NI was estimated at 29.7 million hours, an increase of 1.3% on the previous quarter and an increase of 2.2% 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) increased by 0.6pps over the quarter and increased by 0.7pps over the year to 26.6%.

Seasonally adjusted claimant count rate remains stable over the month

• In November 2024, the seasonally adjusted number of people on the claimant count was 41,300 (4.2% of the workforce), a decrease of 0.5% from the previous month’s revised figure. The November 2024 claimant count remains 38.3% higher than the pre-pandemic count in March 2020.

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

• NISRA, acting on behalf of the Department for the Economy, received confirmation that 90 redundancies occurred in November 2024. Over the year December 2023 to November 2024, 1,690 redundancies were confirmed, which was approximately two-thirds of the figure for the previous year (2,590).
• There were 290 proposed redundancies in November 2024, taking the annual total to 2,960, around seventy percent of the figure for the previous year (4,310).

Quarterly Employment Survey (QES) headline measures

• Businesses reported that employee jobs increased over the quarter (0.9%) and increased over the year (1.1%) to 831,780 jobs in September 2024.

Commentary

• The latest Labour Market release shows that over the year both payrolled employee numbers and earnings have increased, while employee jobs have also increased to a new series high. Additionally, there were decreases over the year in the Labour Force Survey unemployment and employment rates, and an increase in the economic inactivity rate.
• The latest HMRC payroll data shows that payrolled employees was unchanged over the month and increased by 1.1% over the year. Payrolled earnings increased by 0.5% over the month and were 7.4% higher than November 2023.
• Households reported, via the Labour Force Survey (LFS), over the year to August-October 2024, a 0.7pps increase in the economic inactivity rate (to 26.6%), a decrease of 0.5pps in the employment rate (to 72.3%) and a decrease of 0.4pps in the unemployment rate (to 1.6%). None of these annual changes were statistically significant.
• The total number of hours worked in August-October 2024 increased by 2.2% over the year, to 29.7 million hours per week. This is 2.0% above the pre-pandemic position recorded in November-January 2020 and almost equal to the record level recorded in this version of the time series in August-October 2019 (29.8 million hours per week).
• Businesses reported, via the Quarterly Employment Survey, that employee jobs in NI increased over the quarter and the year to reach a new series high, 831,780 jobs, in September 2024. Quarterly increases in employee jobs were seen within the manufacturing, construction, services and other industry sectors with the manufacturing, services and other industry sectors each reaching a new series high in September 2024. There were increases in employee jobs over the year within the manufacturing, construction, services and other industries sectors to September 2024.
• In November 2024, the Department was notified of 90 confirmed redundancies, bringing the rolling twelve-month total of confirmed redundancies to 1,690, approximately two-thirds of the figure for the previous year (2,590). There were also 290 proposed redundancies reported to the Department in November 2024, which brought the annual total of proposed redundancies to 2,960, around seventy percent of the figure for the previous year (4,310). The rolling twelve-month total of proposed redundancies is similar to the levels seen in the decade preceding the pandemic, while the rolling twelve-month total of confirmed redundancies is at the lowest level since August 2023.
• Finally, there was a decrease of 0.5% in the claimant count estimate over the month to November 2024, from the revised figure for October 2024. The claimant count rate for November 2024 was 4.2%, the fourth consecutive month that the rate has been at this level.