Job growth in Northern Ireland ‘may be stalling’

The number of employee jobs in Northern Ireland fell slightly in the final quarter of 2023, the Quarterly Employment Survey (QES) has suggested.

That followed ten consecutive quarterly increases since June 2021.

The QES asks about 6,000 companies, covering all employers with 25 or more employees and all public sector employers.

It found there were an estimated 817,780 employee jobs in Northern Ireland in December 2023.

This was a decrease of 5,050 jobs (-0.6%) over the quarter and an increase of 6,400 jobs (+0.8%) over the year.

The statistics agency, Nisra, cautioned the changes over both the quarter and the year were not statistically significant.

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The usual monthly unemployment and employment figures have not been published as an issue has been identified in how the Office for National Statistics (ONS) processed some data for Northern Ireland for the November 2023 to January 2024 period.

The problem concerns the Labour Force Survey (LFS) which is used to assess unemployment and employment rates.

Nisra said the problem was not with response rates to the survey and that its data collection for the November 2023 to January 2024 period had been unaffected.

It added: "Nisra will publish LFS data for Northern Ireland for the period in question as soon as practicable and will announce a revised publication date as soon as investigations at ONS conclude."