Press Release Quarterly National Household Survey Quarter 1 2015

Date Published: Thu, 21 May 2015

Summary of headline results

Number of Persons in Employment

• There was an annual increase in employment of 2.2% or 41,300 in the year to the first quarter of 2015, bringing total employment to 1,929,500.
• On a seasonally adjusted basis, employment increased by 12,500 (+0.6%) over the previous quarter. This follows on from a seasonally adjusted increase in employment of 13,000 (+0.7%)in Q4 2014.

Number of Persons Unemployed

• The seasonally adjusted unemployment rate decreased from 10.4% to 9.9% over the quarter.
• Unemployment decreased by 45,300 (-17.5%) in the year to Q1 2015 bringing the total number of persons unemployed to 212,800.
• The long-term unemployment rate decreased from 7.3% to 5.9% over the year to Q1 2015. Long-term unemployment accounted for 59.8% of total unemployment in Q1 2015 compared with 60.5% a year earlier and 61.8% in the first quarter of 2013.

Labour Force

• The total number of persons in the labour force in the first quarter of 2015 was 2,142,400,representing a decrease of 4,000 (-0.2%) over the year. The number of persons not in the labour force in Q1 2015 was 1,464,900, an increase of 14,700 (+1.0%) over the year.

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