Northern Ireland workforce continues to grow, figures suggest

Northern Ireland employers continued to grow their workforces in July, official figures suggest.

The number of people on company payrolls was 779,300, an increase of about 3,000 or 0.4%.

Other figures from HMRC suggest pay increases are now lagging well behind the rate of inflation.

The data shows the typical Northern Ireland employee had monthly pay of £1,963 in July 2022, an increase of £89 or 4.7% over the year.

That compares to a UK inflation rate of 9.4%.

When prices are rising much faster than wages it means that living standards are declining.

Overall the latest data suggests the jobs market is holding up despite an increasingly gloomy economic outlook.

Weak recovery in self-employment

The monthly unemployment claimant count showed a 0.5% fall in July after rising marginally in June.

Another measure, the labour force survey, shows the unemployment rate rising very slightly in the quarter from April to June but this change is not statistically significant.

The Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency (Nisra) says the number of people on company payrolls is now 3.5% more than before the pandemic.

It adds that when considering the annual change in employees by industry sector, the largest percentage increases are recorded in the "information and communication" and "arts, entertainment and recreation" sectors, which are both up 9%.

However the overall size of the Northern Ireland workforce still remains below its pre-pandemic level because of a weak recovery in self-employment.

Nisra says the employment rate - the percentage of working age adults in a job - is still 2.7 percentage points below its pre-pandemic level.