14/09/2021

Annual Redundancies 31% Higher Than Previous Year

One hundred and thirty new redundancies were confirmed in August, bringing the annual total to 5,060 – 31% higher than the previous year.

The Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency (NISRA) has published the latest labour market statistics.

While the number of confirmed redundancies has increased, the number of proposed redundancies have seen a 40% decrease, with 80 redundancies proposed during August 2021, taking the total number of proposed collective redundancies in the last twelve months to 5,460.

The report also shows that the NI Claimant Count (Experimental Series) decreased for the sixth consecutive month.

In August 2021, the seasonally adjusted number of people on the claimant count was 48,500 (4.9% of the workforce), which is a decrease of 1,000 (1.9%) from the previous month's revised figure. The August claimant count is 24% below the recent peak in May 2020, and 59% higher than the pre-pandemic count in March 2020.

The report also found:

• The number of employees receiving pay through HMRC PAYE in NI in August 2021 was 764,300, an increase of 0.5% over the month and 3.7% over the year.  This is the highest on record and the third consecutive month that employee numbers were above pre-COVID levels.

• Earnings from the HMRC PAYE indicated that NI employees had a median monthly pay of £1,830 in August 2021, a decrease of £48 (2.6%) over the month and an increase of £81 (4.6%) over the year.

• The latest NI seasonally adjusted unemployment rate (the proportion of economically active people aged 16+ who were unemployed) for the period May-July 2021 was estimated from the Labour Force Survey at 4.0%. The unemployment rate increased by 1.0 percentage points (pps) over the quarter and increased by 1.0pps over the year. The quarterly change was statistically significant and likely to reflect real change.

• The proportion of people aged 16 to 64 in work (the employment rate) increased over the quarter by 0.2pps and over the year by 0.3pps to 71.2%. Neither the quarterly nor annual changes were statistically significant.

• The economic inactivity rate (the proportion of people aged 16 to 64 who were not working and not seeking or available to work) decreased over the quarter by 1.1pps and over the year by 1.1pps to 25.7%. Neither the quarterly nor annual changes were statistically significant.

The full report is available on the Department for the Economy website.

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