The Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency published labour market statistics for April 2026. Payrolled employees and median earnings rose over the year. The seasonally adjusted claimant count rate stayed stable over the month.

In March 2026, payrolled employees totalled 819,800. This figure held steady from the prior month and grew 1.1% from the year before. Median monthly pay reached £2,434, down £60 or 2.4% from February but up £25 or 1.0% from March 2025.

The Labour Force Survey recorded a seasonally adjusted unemployment rate of 2.2% for December to February 2026. This marked a 0.1 percentage point rise from the previous quarter and a 0.7 point increase over the year.

Employment rate for those aged 16 to 64 fell 0.8 points over the quarter and 0.1 point yearly to 71.2%. Total employed people aged 16 and over numbered 889,000, down 8,000 from last quarter and 1,000 from a year earlier.

Weekly hours worked across Northern Ireland came to 28.6 million, a 5.2% drop from the prior quarter and 1.3% decline from last year. Economic inactivity rate for ages 16 to 64 rose 0.8 points quarterly but fell 0.4 points annually to 27.2%.

The claimant count in March 2026 stood at 35,400 people, or 3.5% of the workforce. This rose 1.5% from February's revised count and remained 18.7% above the March 2020 pre-pandemic level.

Confirmed redundancies hit 160 in March 2026. The annual total reached 2,370, about one-third above the previous year's 1,780. Proposed redundancies over 12 months to March totalled 2,910, down 5% from the prior year's 3,060.