The number of employees on company payrolls in Northern Ireland reached 819,900 in July 2026, according to figures published today by the Northern Ireland Statistics & Research Agency. The total was unchanged over the month but 1.1% higher than a year earlier.

Earnings data from HMRC PAYE showed that the median monthly pay for employees in the region stood at £2,498 in July. That represents a rise of £15, or 0.6%, on the previous month and an increase of £129, or 5.4%, over the year.

The seasonally adjusted claimant count fell to 33,300 in July, equivalent to 3.3% of the workforce. The figure was down 2.9% from the revised June level. It remains 11.5% above the pre-pandemic count recorded in March 2020.

Confirmed redundancies totalled 40 in July, bringing the annual total to 1,390. That is more than forty per cent lower than the 2,370 confirmed redundancies recorded in the previous twelve-month period. Proposed redundancies for the year to July stood at 2,780, down nearly seven per cent on the previous year’s figure of 2,980.

Headline measures from the Labour Force Survey for the period April to June 2026 showed small movements but no statistically significant changes. The unemployment rate was estimated at 2.0%, down 0.1 percentage points over the quarter and 0.4 points over the year. The employment rate for people aged 16 to 64 stood at 72.0%, a decrease of 0.4 points on the quarter but an increase of 0.5 points on the year. The number of people in work was estimated at 898,000, unchanged on the quarter and up 4,000 on the year.

Total weekly hours worked in the region were estimated at 29.7 million, an increase of 0.9% on the previous quarter but a decrease of 0.7% on the same period a year earlier. The economic inactivity rate for 16- to 64-year-olds was 26.4%, up 0.4 points over the quarter and down 0.2 points over the year.