The number of employee jobs in Northern Ireland reached a record high of 857,660 in June 2026, according to the Quarterly Employment Survey published by the Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency. This was an increase of 0.4% over the quarter and 2.1% over the year.

However, separate payroll data from HMRC showed that the number of employees on company payrolls stalled at around 819,000 between April and August, suggesting the long period of jobs growth may have ended. The unemployment rate increased slightly to 2.4% in the May to July period, up 0.6 percentage points from the previous quarter.

Total hours worked in the economy fell by 0.5% over the quarter to 29.3 million hours per week, which could indicate employers are reducing overtime to cut costs.

The Quarterly Employment Survey indicated a small overall increase in employment, mainly due to hiring in health and social care, which added 2,000 jobs. The biggest fall was in administrative and support services, which lost more than 1,000 posts, possibly reflecting cost-cutting or early AI adoption.

The claimant count increased by 1.4% in August to 33,400, representing 3.3% of the workforce. This is 11.8% higher than the pre-pandemic level in March 2020.

The latest annual total of confirmed redundancies was 1,360, which is 44% lower than the previous year. Proposed redundancies also fell by 4% to 2,950.

Median monthly pay for employees increased by 5.6% over the year to £2,509 in August 2026, according to HMRC data.