Businesses Continue To Add Staff Despite Concerns Over Costs

It is very cheering to see that many businesses in Northern Ireland are continuing to add staff to their payroll, despite the fact that from April there will be the added challenges of an increase in employers National Insurance and an increase in the National Minimum Wage.

The latest payroll data indicates a rise in the number of employees in both January and February of this year. Here are some figures as copied from an article by John Campbell on the BBC News website. It reads:

“Payroll data suggests companies were continuing to add staff in January and February.

“There were just 150 redundancies announced in February, less than the monthly averages for 2023 and 2024.

“The employment rate, the proportion of working age adults in a job, was 72.2% in the period from November to January.”

Is There Just A Delay Before Redundancies Are Announced?

Talking to many businesses after the news was announced of a rise in employers National Insurance rate, it seemed inevitable that there would be casualties in terms of redundancies as they tried to cut their costs. So far this has not filtered through, but there is often a delay in these types of actions so we are definitely not out of the woods yet.

From April 1st, employer’s National Insurance contributions will rise from 13.8% to 15%, and the secondary threshold, which is at the point where employers start paying contributions, will change from £9,100 to £5,000 annually.

Also the hourly rates of the National Minimum Wage will increase from April 1st. The rates are changing from £11.44 to £12.21 per hour for workers aged 21 or over, from £8.60 to £10 per hour for workers between 18 to 20 years old, and from £6.40 to £7.55 for apprentices and workers aged 16 to 17 years old.

The Private Sector Ended Last Year On A High

The article by John Campbell on the BBC News website also looked at the growth in the services sector here in NI. It reads that:

“Meanwhile, other data suggests that Northern Ireland’s private sector ended 2024 on a high with growth in services and manufacturing.

“Services, which is the dominant sector of the economy, grew by 0.6% in the final quarter of the year.

“Growth was led by businesses services, which includes things like accountancy and law, which saw output expand by 6.5% over the quarter.

“Manufacturing grew by 2.2% over the quarter with a strong performance in metal products and textiles.”