The Northern Ireland labour market has been hit with the highest number of confirmed redundancies since 2001 in the past year according to new statistics.
Following the release of the latest labour market statistics by the Northern Ireland Statistics & Research Agency, it was found that Northern Ireland has experienced its highest level of confirmed redundancies since 2001.
A total of 10,090 collective redundancies were proposed in the twelve months to the end of March 2021, over double the number in the previous year. The number of confirmed redundancies hit 5,780 across Northern Ireland in this period, the highest level in the past twenty years.
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Despite the redunancies, HMRC's PAYE system showed an increase in both the number of payrolled employees in Northern Ireland and the total employee earnings from January 2021 to February 2021. The number of employees is still down 1.2% over the past year but rose 0.2% in February to 744,300, showing that numbers are stabilising.
The NI unemployment rate among those aged 16 and over who are economically active was estimated to be 3.7% for the period from December to Februrary, having increased over the past year. The employment rate dropped over the past year by 3.5 percentage points to 69%, a statistically significant drop.
Compared to other regions of the UK, Northern Ireland had the lowest employment rate and the highest economic inactivity rate. The labour market (including furloughed jobs) is still below pre-Covid numbers and may take some time to recover.
Source: Written based on press release
