Jobs figures: Number of NI employees up slightly in January

The number of workers on company payrolls in Northern Ireland in January was 799,600 - up 0.1% over the month and 1.9% higher than the previous year.

Data from HMRC suggests employees in Northern Ireland have a typical monthly pay of £2,130 in January.

That is almost 5% or £94 more than the same time last year, but a decrease of £9 or 0.4% from December 2023.

Northern Ireland had the smallest annual pay increase of the 12 UK regions.

It remains the lowest earning region in the UK.

The number of people claiming unemployment related benefits was 35,800, a small decrease of 0.4% from the previous month's figure.

The Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency (Nisra), acting on behalf of the Department for the Economy, confirmed 50 redundancies occurred in January and there were 140 proposed redundancies.

• NI unemployment rate reaches record low

• Employment rate returns to pre-pandemic peak

• Are redundancies a sign of NI job market downturn?

The unemployment rate for October to December 2023 was estimated at 2.6%.

That was up slightly over the quarter and over the year, but is still well below the most recent UK unemployment rate of 3.8%.

The proportion of people in work - the employment rate - has moved "in a favourable direction" according to Nisra and at 71.3%, was up 0.6% over the quarter and 0.4% over the year.

There was an improvement in the rate of economic inactivity, which is people who are not in work nor looking for a job, including people who are sick, students and carers.

The rate of economic inactivity fell by 1.1% over the quarter and 0.4% over the year to 26.8%, but is still much higher than the UK rate of 21.9% and the highest of the UK regions.

The most common reason for being economically inactive is people who are classed as long-term sick.

The most recent figures suggest there were 130,000 long-term sick people in Northern Ireland.

Mark McAllister, director of employment relations services at the Labour Relations Agency (LRA), said: "Northern Ireland had the smallest pay rise in the UK and this will not be lost on trade unions and NI Executive ministers alike when the negotiating parties are around the pay talk tables in the coming weeks.

"These statistics - along with inflation - will be in the mix in all pay negotiations as we move towards the end of the financial year.

"There will be a keen focus on 'catch up', on-going cost-of-living, future proofing and sustainable pay deals."