Unemployment Rate Falls Once More

The unemployment rate in Northern Ireland is still falling, it fell to 2.2% from February to April of this year and this is lower than any other region in the UK. Conversely the proportion of people working in NI was 71.3% and although this is the highest figure since before Covid-19 hit our shores, it is still lower than the average UK rate which stands at 74.3%.

The Latest Data From HMRC

These figures have been collated by the HMRC and let us look at some more of their data, as copied from an article by Clodagh Rice on the BBC News website. The article goes on to say that:

‘The number of people not in work nor looking for a job (for example students, carers, sick), known as the rate of economic inactivity, was 27%.

‘That’s down 0.1% over the year.

‘However the rate in Northern Ireland continues to be significantly higher than the UK average (22.3%).

‘The most common reason for economic inactivity was “long-term sick” with 126,000 “long-term sick” making up 39.7% of the total economically inactive.

‘The number of people in NI on company payrolls last month was unchanged from April.

‘In May there were 801,800 employees on company payrolls – that’s 1.6% higher than the same time last year and the biggest increase of any UK region.

‘NISRA says 180 redundancies occurred in May.

‘Paypackets in Northern Ireland continued to grow last month but are still the lowest UK region.

‘Typical monthly pay in Northern Ireland was £2,217 in May – that’s an increase of £141 or 6.8% in 12 months.

‘However, it is still lower than the UK rate of typical monthly pay which was £2,379 in May.

‘Northern Ireland remains the lowest earning of the 12 UK regions, but has also reported the biggest increase over the last 12 months.’

Northern Ireland Has Been In The Doldrums For Some Time

This last bit of information is very telling. The fact that Northern Ireland is the lowest paying region for workers within the whole of the UK shows that the country has been in the doldrums for some time. How well a country pays its workers overall is usually a good indicator of where it is economically and socially. The good news of course is that wages have shown a healthy increase over the last 12 months which may be showing that we are beginning to catch up with the rest of the UK.