Labour Market Statistics January 2025
Topics:
Date published:
The labour market statistics were published today by the Northern Ireland Statistics & Research Agency.

Payrolled employees decreased over the month and median earnings increased
- 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 0.6% over the year.
- Earnings data 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.
- 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 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.
- 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%.
- 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.
- 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%.
Seasonally adjusted claimant count rate remains stable over the month
- 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.
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 240 redundancies occurred in December 2024. Over the year January 2024 to December 2024, 1,840 redundancies were confirmed, which was approximately seventy percent of the figure for the previous year (2,600).
- There were 2,980 redundancies proposed in the 12 months to December 2024, which was approximately seventy percent of the figure for the previous year (4,300).
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.
Notes to editors:
- The statistical report and associated tables are available at: https://www.nisra.gov.uk/publications/labour-market-report-january-2025
- 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.
- ‘Over the quarter’ refer to comparisons between the latest quarterly estimates for the period September-November 2024 and the quarter preceding that (i.e. June-August 2024). ‘Over the year’ refer to comparisons between the latest quarterly estimates for the period September-November 2024 and those of the corresponding quarter one year previously (i.e. September-November 2023). Changes that are significant in a statistical sense (i.e. where the estimated change exceeded the variability expected from a sample survey of this size and was likely to reflect real change) are specifically highlighted.
- 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 official measure of unemployment is from the Labour Force Survey. This measure of unemployment relates to people without a job who were available for work and had either looked for work in the last four weeks or were waiting to start a job. This is the International Labour Organisation definition. Labour Force Survey estimates are subject to sampling error. This means that the exact figure is likely to be contained in a range surrounding the estimate quoted. For example, the unemployment rate is likely to fall within 0.6pps of the quoted estimate (i.e. between 1.1% and 2.2%).
- The claimant count is an administrative data source derived from Jobs and Benefits Offices systems, which records the number of people claiming unemployment-related benefits. In March 2018, the NI claimant count measure changed from one based solely on Jobseekers Allowance (JSA) to an experimental measure based on JSA claimants and out-of-work Universal Credit (UC) claimants who were claiming principally for the reason of being unemployed. Those claiming unemployment-related benefits (either UC or JSA) may be wholly unemployed and seeking work or may be employed but with low income and/or low hours, that make them eligible for unemployment-related benefit support. Under UC a broader span of claimants became eligible for unemployment-related benefit than under the previous benefit regime.
- Redundancies are provided by companies under the Employment Rights (Northern Ireland) Order 1996 (Amended 8 October 2006) whereby they are legally required to notify the Department of impending redundancies of 20 or more employees. Companies who propose fewer than 20 redundancies are not required to notify the Department, therefore the figures provided are likely to be an underestimate of total job losses, however, it is not possible to quantify the extent of the shortfall. All other things being equal we would expect more redundancies in sectors dominated by large businesses as they are the businesses that meet the 20 or more collective redundancy criteria.
- To prevent the potential identification of individual businesses, redundancy totals relating to fewer than three businesses are not disclosed. The Statistical Disclosure Control Policy is available here: https://www.nisra.gov.uk/publications/redundancies-background-information. Where the number of businesses does not meet the threshold for release (as detailed in the Statistical Disclosure Control Policy), individual monthly totals are not published.
- HMRC’s Pay As You Earn (PAYE) Real Time Information (RTI) system is an administrative data source. The PAYE RTI system is the system employers use to take Income Tax and National Insurance contributions before they pay wages to employees. These data relate to employees paid by employers only, and do not include self-employment income.
- Estimates of the number of paid employees and employee earnings from PAYE are classed as official statistics in development as they are still in their development phase. As a result, the data are subject to revisions. Early estimates (flash estimates) for December 2024 are based on around 85% of information and will be subject to revision in the next month’s release when between 98% and 99% of data will be available (main estimates). The size of revisions to main and flash estimates are similar for employees, while revisions to earnings flash estimates are typically larger than main estimate revisions. The HMRC PAYE covers the whole population rather than a sample of employees or companies. Data are based on where employees live and not the location of their place of work within the UK. Data are seasonally adjusted but not adjusted for inflation.
- The Labour Market Report will be of interest to policy makers, public bodies, the business community, banks, economic commentators, academics, and the general public with an interest in the local economy.
- The next scheduled release of the Labour Market Report will be published on the NISRA website on Tuesday 18th February 2025.
- For media enquiries contact the Department for the Economy Press Office at pressoffice@economy-ni.gov.uk
- To keep up to date with news from the Department you can follow us on the following social media channels:
- X / Twitter – @Economy_NI
- Facebook – @DeptEconomyNI
- Instagram – economy_ni
- LinkedIn – Department for the Economy NI
- Feedback is welcomed and should be addressed to: Responsible statistician: Mark McFetridge, Economic & Labour Market Statistics (ELMS), Mark.McFetridge@nisra.gov.uk or Tel: 028 902 55172.