Northern Ireland had an estimated 820,800 employees on payrolls in June, 1.4% more than a year earlier, according to the latest labour-market statistics. Median monthly pay reached £2,480, an annual increase of 4.9% before the effect of prices is considered.
The separate Labour Force Survey estimated unemployment at 1.8% and employment at 72.1%, with about 901,000 people in work. Economic inactivity stood at 26.5%, remaining a distinctive feature of the regional labour market even as the headline unemployment rate stayed low.
The claimant count was 33,800 in June, equivalent to 3.3% of the workforce measure used for that series. A total of 1,670 redundancies was confirmed over the most recent 12-month period, showing that business restructuring continued beneath the broader employee trend.
Payroll, survey, claimant and redundancy figures measure different things and are released together to provide a fuller view. Monthly estimates can move as data is revised, while pay growth is a cash measure and does not by itself show whether household purchasing power improved.
The release points to continued employee and wage growth but also to the persistent challenge of people outside both work and active job seeking. Future months will show whether the expansion in payroll numbers is sustained and how it is distributed across industries and council areas.