{"id":836038,"date":"2026-03-19T10:40:21","date_gmt":"2026-03-19T10:40:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/836038\/"},"modified":"2026-03-19T10:40:21","modified_gmt":"2026-03-19T10:40:21","slug":"average-monthly-wage-in-northern-ireland-up-8-on-last-year-official-figures-show-the-irish-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/836038\/","title":{"rendered":"Average monthly wage in Northern Ireland up 8% on last year, official figures show \u2013 The Irish News"},"content":{"rendered":"

The median monthly wage in Northern Ireland increased by 8.2% over the year to February, narrowing the pay gap with the rest of the UK to just \u00a393 (3.6%), official government data indicates.<\/p>\n

HMRC data published on Thursday revealed pay as you earn (PAYE) employees in the north had a median monthly wage of \u00a32,493 in February 2026, an increase of \u00a343 (1.8%) over the month and \u00a3189 (8.2%) higher over the year.<\/p>\n

The comparable monthly wage for the UK remained virtually unchanged at \u00a32,586 in February, narrowing the pay gap with the Northern Ireland average.<\/p>\n

The Office for National Statistics (ONS) said earnings in the UK grew at just 3.8% over the year, the slowest rate in more than five years. <\/p>\n

\"Live:<\/a>\"Business<\/a><\/p>\n

The annual increase in earnings for PAYE employees was more than twice the UK inflation rate, which stood at 3% in January.<\/p>\n

\"TheThe change in median monthly pay in Northern Ireland v the UK (2014-2026). (Nisra) <\/p>\n

However, the data predates the impact of the energy shock created by the ongoing Middle East crisis.<\/p>\n

The latest labour market<\/a> report from the Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency (Nisra) also showed the PAYE workforce in the north reaching a new record of 820,808 in February.<\/p>\n

According to HMRC, 1,672 jobs were added last month, taking the annual increase to 11,541 (1.4%).<\/p>\n

Nisra\u2019s separately produced labour force survey estimated the Northern Ireland unemployment rate at 2.2% for the November to January period.<\/p>\n

The employment rate among 16 to 64 year-olds increased by 0.9 percentage points (pps) over the same quarter to 71.6%, while the north\u2019s economic inactivity rate dropped 0.8pps over the quarter to 26.7%.<\/p>\n

The number of people on the claimant count also dropped by 0.6% in February to 35,600 (3.6% of the workforce).<\/p>\n

Nisra\u2019s quarterly employment survey also suggests the rate of job creation in Northern Ireland outpaced the wider UK throughout 2025.<\/p>\n

The statistics body also recorded 140 confirmed redundancies in February, with employers proposing a further 190 layoffs.<\/p>\n

The figures only include cases where employers are legally bound to notify the government when shedding at least 20 roles.<\/p>\n

Despite the upbeat labour market data, new economic data published by Nisra on Thursday suggests the north\u2019s crucial services sector slowed down in the final quarter of 2025.<\/p>\n

Output in the sector, which accounts for more than half the Northern Ireland economy, decreased by 1.5% in the final three months of the year, although it finished 2025 0.6% up on the same quarter in 2024.<\/p>\n

It followed a 5.1% decrease in output within the business services and finance sector, which has been one of the strongest performing sectors in recent years.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Nisra\u2019s Retail Sales Index (RSI) saw a decrease of 2.6% in the fourth quarter of 2025, but remained 2.2% up over the year.<\/p>\n

On a more positive note, the Index of Production, which includes the north\u2019s manufacturing sector, saw output increase by 1.3% in the final quarter of 2025, leaving it 2.7% up over the year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The median monthly wage in Northern Ireland increased by 8.2% over the year to February, narrowing the pay…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":836039,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5011],"tags":[1830,18223,474,1016,21528,1144,35961,1199,16,5664,15],"class_list":["post-836038","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-northern-ireland","tag-earnings","tag-economic","tag-finance","tag-hmrc","tag-labour-market","tag-northern-ireland","tag-redundancy","tag-services","tag-uk","tag-unemployment","tag-united-kingdom"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116255419886400859","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/836038","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=836038"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/836038\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/836039"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=836038"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=836038"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=836038"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}