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Northern Ireland employment reaches record high

Reuters A construction worker wearing a blue helmet and a yellow high-viz jacket works on scaffolding outside a building.Reuters
The NI construction sector was one of the fastest areas for jobs growth

Employment in Northern Ireland is at a record high but growth is levelling off, new official figures suggest.

The Quarterly Employment Survey (QES) suggests there were 831,780 employee jobs in September, an increase of more than 9,000 from the same time last year.

The QES surveys about 6,000 companies, covering all employers with 25 or more employees and all public sector employers.

It found that over the year and during the third quarter there was employment growth in all major sectors of the economy.

Over the year most job growth was in services and construction with those sectors adding around 5,000 and 3,000 jobs respectively.

Manufacturing added 330 jobs with an additional 450 jobs on other industry sectors.

A separate measurement using HMRC payroll data suggests that job growth may have stalled since the summer.

It shows that between January and July payrolled jobs increased from 799,000 to just over 806,000 while between July and November there has effectively been no growth.

The QES and HMRC do not have the same absolute numbers as they are measuring slightly different things.

Meanwhile, Danske Bank says it expects that the NI economy will have grown by just 1.1% this year with growth expected to pick up to 1.4% next year.

That is a more cautious estimate than one published the Ulster University Economic Policy Centre (UUEPC) earlier this month which forecast growth of 1.9% this year and 1.5% next year.

Conor Lambe, Chief Economist & Head of Strategy at Danske Bank said: "Looking forward into 2025, we expect the pace of growth to increase as closer to target rates of inflation and continued loosening of monetary policy provide some support to consumer expenditure.

"The measures announced in the Budget are also likely to lead to higher levels of government spending.

"However, despite expectations of continued easing, Bank of England Bank Rate is still expected to remain relatively high and the increase in tax announced within the Budget is also likely to lead to challenges for businesses."