Labour Market Statistics July 2025

Date published: 17 July 2025

Payrolled employees and median earnings decreased over the month

• The number of employees receiving pay through HMRC PAYE in NI in June 2025 was 809,200, a decrease of 0.3% over the month and an increase 0.5% over the year.
• Earnings data from HMRC PAYE indicated that NI employees had a median monthly pay of Pound 2,344 in June 2025, a decrease of Pound 28 (1.2%) over the month and an increase of Pound 26 (1.1%) over the year. Median earnings in the latest four months may have been affected by local pay awards.
• The estimates from HMRC PAYE for the latest period are based on early data and, therefore, are more likely to be subject to larger revisions.

Labour Force Survey headline measures

• The latest NI seasonally adjusted unemployment rate (the proportion of economically active people aged 16 and over who were unemployed) for the period March-May 2025 was estimated from the Labour Force Survey at 2.1%. This represents an increase of 0.6 percentage points (pps) over the quarter and an increase of 0.3pps over the year. The quarterly change was statistically significant.
• The proportion of people aged 16 to 64 in work (the employment rate) increased by 0.7pps over the quarter and decreased by 0.7pps over the year to 72.1%.
• The total number of weekly hours worked in NI was estimated at 30.2 million hours, an increase of 4.2% on the previous quarter and an increase of 2.9% on the equivalent period last year.
• The economic inactivity rate (the proportion of people aged 16 to 64 who were not working and not seeking or available to work) decreased by 1.2pps over the quarter and increased by 0.4pps over the year to 26.3%.

Seasonally adjusted claimant count rate remains stable over the month

• In June 2025, the seasonally adjusted number of people on the claimant count was 38,500 (3.9% of the workforce), an increase of 1.0% from the previous month's revised figure. The June 2025 claimant count remains 28.8% higher than the pre-pandemic count in March 2020.

Latest annual total of confirmed redundancies lower than previous year

• NISRA, acting on behalf of the Department for the Economy, received confirmation that 300 redundancies occurred in June 2025. Over the year July 2024 to June 2025, 2,160 redundancies were confirmed, which was approximately eighty-five percent of the figure for the previous year (2,560).
• There were 210 proposed redundancies in June 2025, taking the annual total to 3,030, which was almost five percent higher than the figure for the previous year (2,890).

Commentary

• The latest Labour Market release shows that over the year both payrolled employee numbers and earnings have increased. However, the Labour Force Survey shows a decrease in the employment rate over the year with increases in both the unemployment rate and economic inactivity rate.
• The latest HMRC payroll data shows that payrolled employees decreased by 0.3% over the month and increased by 0.5% over the year. Payrolled earnings decreased by 1.2% over the month and were 1.1% higher than June 2024.
• Households reported, via the Labour Force Survey (LFS), over the year to March-May 2025, increases in both the unemployment rate (by 0.3pps to 2.1%) and the economic inactivity rate (by 0.4pps to 26.3%), while the employment rate decreased by 0.7pps to 72.1%. None of these annual changes were statistically significant, however the unemployment rate showed a statistically significant increase over the quarter (by 0.6pps).
• The total number of hours worked in March-May 2025 increased by 2.9% over the year, to 30.2 million hours per week. This figure is 4.2% above the pre-pandemic position recorded in December-February 2020 and was similar to the highest level recorded in this time series (30.5 million hours per week, recorded in September-November 2019)
• In June 2025, the Department was notified of 300 confirmed redundancies, bringing the rolling twelve-month total of confirmed redundancies to 2,160, approximately eighty-five percent of the figure for the previous year (2,560). In addition, 210 proposed redundancies were notified to the Department in June 2025. The annual total of proposed redundancies was 3,030, almost five percent higher than the figure for the previous year (2,890). Both the twelve-month totals of proposed and confirmed redundancies are similar to the levels seen in the decade preceding the pandemic.
• Finally, there was an increase of 1.0% in the claimant count estimate over the month to June 2025 from the revised figure for May 2025. The claimant count rate for June 2025 was unchanged from the revised rate for May 2025 of 3.9%.