Northern Ireland recorded an increase in the number of payrolled employees over the past year.

The Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency reported 818,100 employees paid through HMRC PAYE in May 2026. This figure represented a 1.0% rise from the previous year despite a 0.1% monthly decline.

Median monthly pay for employees reached £2,467 in April 2026. This amount marked a 3.2% increase over the year.

The unemployment rate stood at 2.1% for the January to March 2026 period. The rate rose 0.5 percentage points from the same period the previous year but fell 0.1 percentage points from the prior quarter.

The employment rate for those aged 16 to 64 increased 0.6 percentage points over the year to 72.1%. The economic inactivity rate fell 1.0 percentage points over the year to 26.3%.

Confirmed redundancies totalled 2,350 over the 12 months to April 2026. This total was one third higher than the previous year.

The claimant count reached 35,600 in April 2026. The figure was 19.3% above the pre-pandemic level recorded in March 2020.