Jobs market recovery continues in NI at start of 2022

The jobs market recovery in Northern Ireland was sustained into the new year, new official figures have suggested.

Payroll data for January 2022 suggests companies in Northern Ireland have continued to hire staff.

The number of payrolled employees increased by 5% year on year and only London performed more strongly among the UK regions.

However on other measures the jobs market is yet to fully recover.

The statistics agency Nisra said: "The number of payrolled employees and level of payroll earnings continue to be above the pre-pandemic levels.

"Total employment, which includes self-employed, and hours worked have yet to return to pre- pandemic levels and similarly claimant count, unemployment and economic inactivity all remain above," it said.

The number of payrolled employees in NI in January was 774,900, the highest on record and the eighth consecutive month that employee numbers have been above pre-pandemic levels.

A closer look at the annual increase in employee jobs shows that all sectors, with the exception of finance and insurance, reported an increase over the year.

Almost every sector has reported an increase in the number of employees

The accommodation and food sector reported the largest percentage increase over the year (+14%), with employee numbers in this sector just above (1%) those recorded pre-pandemic.

The number of self-employed people has not recovered in the same way as employment.

There were an estimated 134,000 people in self-employment in the period October-December 2019, but in the same period in 2021, that had fallen to 104,000.

That means there were still an estimated 20,000 fewer people in employment at the end of 2021 compared to the end of 2019.

Meanwhile, data on pay in Northern Ireland suggests it is keeping up with the rate of inflation.

The experimental data suggests that typical monthly pay was £1,941 in January, an increase of 1.7% on the previous month and up 8.7% from January 2021.

In December, the rate of inflation rose to 5.4% and is expected to peak at around 7% in spring, according to the Bank of England.

Nisra cautions that there has been some volatility in the pay data in recent months.