More good news on the economy front on the back of the latest positive Ulster Bank Tracker report.
NISRA’s Quarterly Employment Survey (QES) suggests the number of jobs in the economy rose to a record high of 826,130 in June.
The QES surveys about 6,000 companies, covering all employers with 25 or more employees and all public sector employers.
There was an increase of 1,950 jobs (+0.2%) over the second quarter and an increase of 10,080 jobs (+1.2%) over the year. The growth was driven largely by the services and construction sectors.
Meanwhile HMRC’s estimate of the number of people on company payrolls in August showed a small decline, but remained close to a record high.
The labour market statistics were published today by the Northern Ireland Statistics & Research Agency.
- The latest NI seasonally adjusted unemployment rate (the proportion of economically active people aged 16 and over who were unemployed) for the period May-July 2024 was estimated from the Labour Force Survey at 2.0%. This was a decrease of 0.2 percentage points (pps) over the quarter and a decrease of 0.6pps over the year.
- The proportion of people aged 16 to 64 in work (the employment rate) decreased by 0.2pps over the quarter and increased by 1.2pps over the year to 71.1%.
- The total number of weekly hours worked in NI was estimated at 28.4 million hours, an increase of 0.5% on the previous quarter and an increase of 3.6% 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) increased by 0.4pps over the quarter and decreased by 0.8pps over the year to 27.5%.