Labour Market Statistics - August 2025

Date published: 12 August 2025

Payrolled employees and median earnings increased over the month

• The number of employees receiving pay through HMRC PAYE in NI in July 2025 was 811,500, an increase of 0.1% over the month and an increase 0.7% over the year.
• Earnings data from HMRC PAYE indicated that NI employees had a median monthly pay of Pound 2,377 in July 2025, an increase of Pound 32 (1.4%) over the month and an increase of Pound 141 (6.3%) over the year.
• The estimates from HMRC PAYE for the latest period are based on early 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 April-June 2025 was estimated from the Labour Force Survey at 2.4%. This represents an increase of 0.8 percentage points (pps) over the quarter and an increase of 0.6pps over the year. The quarterly change was statistically significant.
• The proportion of people aged 16 to 64 in work (the employment rate) was unchanged over the quarter and decreased by 1.3pps over the year to 71.6%.
• The total number of weekly hours worked in NI was estimated at 29.9 million hours, a decrease of 0.3% on the previous quarter and a decrease of 0.1% 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 0.7pps over the quarter and increased by 0.7pps over the year to 26.6%.

Seasonally adjusted claimant count rate decreased over the month

• In July 2025, the seasonally adjusted number of people on the claimant count was 36,500 (3.7% of the workforce), a decrease of 3.1% from the previous month's revised figure. The July 2025 claimant count is 22.2% higher than the pre-pandemic count in March 2020.

Latest annual total of confirmed redundancies lower than previous year

• NISRA, acting on behalf of the Department for the Economy, received confirmation that 340 redundancies occurred in July 2025. Over the year, August 2024 to July 2025, 2,370 redundancies were confirmed, which was approximately ninety percent of the figure for the previous year (2,640).
• There were 150 proposed redundancies in July 2025, taking the annual total to 3,010, which was almost seven percent higher than the figure for the previous year (2,820).

Commentary

• The latest Labour Market results highlight a slowing down of the labour market within Northern Ireland. Across all sources changes in the employment levels over the year have been relatively small, with an increase in payrolled employee numbers from the HMRC payroll data and a decrease in the employment rate from the Labour Force Survey (LFS). Both the unemployment rate and the economic inactivity rate from the Labour Force Survey (LFS) have increased.  NI monthly pay has increased at the fastest rate in the UK in the past year however it is still the lowest earning region.
• The latest HMRC payroll data shows that payrolled employees increased by 0.1% over the month and increased by 0.7% over the year. Payrolled earnings increased by 1.4% over the month and were 6.3% higher than July 2024.
• Households reported, via the Labour Force Survey (LFS), over the year to April-June 2025, increases in both the unemployment rate (by 0.6pps to 2.4%) and the economic inactivity rate (by 0.7pps to 26.6%), while the employment rate decreased by 1.3pps to 71.6%. None of these annual changes were statistically significant, however the unemployment rate showed a statistically significant increase over the quarter (by 0.8pps).
• The total number of hours worked in April-June 2025 decreased by 0.1% over the year, to 29.9 million hours per week. This figure is 1.4% above the pre-pandemic position recorded in October-December 2019 and was similar to the highest level recorded in this time series (30.0 million hours per week, in April-June 2019).
• In July 2025, the Department was notified of 340 confirmed redundancies, bringing the rolling twelve-month total of confirmed redundancies to 2,370, approximately ninety percent of the figure for the previous year (2,640). In addition, 150 proposed redundancies were notified to the Department in July 2025. The annual total of proposed redundancies was 3,010, almost seven percent higher than the figure for the previous year (2,820). 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 3.1% in the claimant count estimate over the month to July 2025 from the revised figure for June 2025. The claimant count rate for July 2025 decreased to 3.7% from the revised rate for June 2025 of 3.8%.