Employment rate remains high in Northern Ireland despite economic concerns

Northern Ireland's employment rate increased by almost 2% in the last quarter.

According to the latest figures from the Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency, the number of people aged 16 to 64 in work, increased by 1.7 percent to 71.3%.

There were 50 redundancies confirmed in November 2022.  

Over the most recent 12-month period, 1,490 redundancies were proposed and 850 were confirmed.  

The rolling 12-month total of confirmed redundancies is the lowest total in the time series and is the second consecutive total under 1,000.

Results from the Labour Force Survey (LFS) show a statistically significant increase in the employment rate over both the quarter and the year to August-October 2022 to 71.3%.

In addition, there were statistically significant decreases in the unemployment rate over the year to 2.7% and economic inactivity rate over the quarter to 26.7%.  

Despite these changes, the employment rate remains 1.0pps below the pre-pandemic level recorded in November-January 2020, while the unemployment rate remains 0.3pps above the pre-pandemic position and the economic inactivity rate 0.8pps above the pre-pandemic rate.  

The total number of hours worked in August-October 2022 was 3.9% below the pre-pandemic position recorded in November-January 2020.

Want a quick and expert briefing on the biggest news stories? Listen to our latest podcasts to find out What You Need To Know.