The average wage for payrolled workers in Northern Ireland increased by 10.9% over the year to April 2025, official government data suggests.

The median monthly earning for pay as you earn (PAYE) employees rose £17 (0.7%) to £2,427 last month, according to the latest labour market report from the Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency (Nisra).

The HMRC PAYE data suggests the average wage for a payrolled worker in the north increased by £238 in 12 months.

The 10.9% increase was more than four times the rate of UK inflation in March 2025 (2.6%).

The HMRC data reflects gross earnings, i.e. what employers pay to workers before tax and national insurance is deducted.

The increase in April coincided with the uplift in the UK’s minimum wage.

The national living wage for workers aged over 21 increased to £12.21 per hour on April 1, while the minimum hourly rate for 18-20 year-olds has increased to £10 per hour.

Under 18s are now paid a minimum of £7.55 per hour.

However, the same report published by Nisra on Tuesday states the overall HMRC PAYE employee count dropped by 757 (0.1%) to 810,203 in April.

That marked the first month-on-month decline since December 2024.

The overall total was still 8,817 (1.1%) higher in April 2025 that the same month last year.

Nisra’s latest labour market report suggests the official Northern Ireland unemployment rate stood at 1.6% for the first quarter of 2025, 0.5 percentage points (pps) lower than the first quarter of 2024.

But the report suggests the employment rate in Northern Ireland declined over the same quarter to 71.6%, which was 1.4pps down year-on-year.

The corresponding economic inactivity rate went the other direction, with the proportion of people aged 16 to 64 who were not working, and not seeking or available to work, estimated to be 27.2%.

That represented an annual increase of 0.6pps over the quarter and 1.8pps over the year.

Nisra’s monthly report also indicates employers proposed 150 redundancies in April, with 50 redundancies confirmed last month.

Those figures are restricted to cases where employers are statutorily required to notify government when shedding at least 20 jobs.