Northern Ireland’s Employment Figures Revised Upward, Showing Stronger Job Market

The robustness of Northern Ireland’s employment sector has been understated in official statistics over the last two years.A data processing error originating from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) led to a substantial underestimation of employment levels. According to the updated data, an estimated 24,000 additional individuals were employed between April and June of the current year compared to prior estimates.The most recent employment rate, which represents the proportion of working-age adults holding a job, has been adjusted upwards from 71.6% to 72.9%. Furthermore, these statistics indicate that Northern Ireland’s job market has experienced a more robust recovery from the Covid pandemic than initially believed.In the last quarter of 2019, immediately preceding the pandemic, the employment rate stood at 72.4%.It decreased during the pandemic, dropping below 69% for the majority of 2021, with earlier calculations implying an incomplete recovery.Nevertheless, the revised data reveals it reached 72.4% again between July and September 2023 and has stayed above that threshold subsequently. In contrast, the rate of economic inactivity is lower than prior estimations.Economic inactivity describes individuals who are neither employed nor actively seeking employment.This category encompasses those who are ill, retired, engaged in full-time education, disabled, and individuals with caregiving duties.The latest economic inactivity rate has been adjusted downwards from 27.1% to 25.9%, representing a reduction of 16,000 individuals. Nisra, Northern Ireland’s statistical agency, reported that the ONS error originated in early 2020, at which point the unobserved discrepancies were initially minor.