Employee jobs total in Northern Ireland jumps to historical high

The number of people on payrolls in Northern Ireland has hit a record high according to the latest statistics which show the employee jobs total in the North has jumped to 765,880 people.

The December Labour Market Report, compiled by the Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency (NISRA), highlights that the number of employee jobs increased in the nine months to September of this year to a historical high.

It details that the private sector grew its jobs base by 13,900 new positions while the public sector in the North also recruited an additional 1,160 people.

According to NISRA the “annual change was statistically significant and therefore likely to reflect real change”.

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Richard Ramsey, Ulster Bank’s chief economist in Northern Ireland, said there are currently 33,000 more jobs in the labour market in the North compared with the total number there were in quarter two at the height of the pre-recession peak in 2008.

Downturn

“Both the services and manufacturing sectors have recovered the jobs lost during the downturn. Services boasts a record high in job numbers while manufacturing employment is at a 14-year high. Construction may be enjoying the fastest rates of growth, at 4.1 per cent year on year, but employment within this sector remains just over three-quarters of where it was over a decade ago.

“Encouragingly, the rate of overall employment growth has shown no notable signs of slowing with the annual pace of job creation running at a healthy 2 per cent year on year. This conceals stronger rates of growth in the private sector of 2.5 per cent year on year – relative to the public sector of 0.6 per cent year on year,” Mr Ramsey added.

The December Labour Market Report also shows there has been a big increase in the number of confirmed redundancies in the North this year, which at 2,643, is 43 per cent higher than in the previous 12 months which totalled 1,848.

According to the report the North’s jobless rate for the period August to October 2018 remained historically low at 3.9 per cent which was below the UK average rate of 4.1 per cent and also the Republic’s 5.4 per cent rate for September 2018.