There are more Catholics in the north’s workforce than Protestants for the first time…

From the press release:

The 33rd fair employment monitoring report has been published by the Equality Commission.

This latest report shows the breakdown of the monitored workforce in Northern Ireland by community background. It uses data provided to the Equality Commission by private and public sector employers based on their workforces in 2022.

For the first time since monitoring began, the share of the total monitored workforce from members of the Roman Catholic community [50.1%] was greater than that of members of the Protestant community [49.9%], reflecting a trend whereby Roman Catholics represent a majority of those available for work. This marks an end to the long-established trend of members of the Protestant community accounting for a greater share of the total monitored workforce and continues the trend of an increasing share from members of the Roman Catholic community. In the same period, the female share of the monitored workforce increased by 0.1 pp from the previous year (52.5%).

Geraldine McGahey, Chief Commissioner of the Equality Commission said,
“The latest monitoring report provides a valuable snapshot of the Northern Ireland workforce and shows the progress that has been made in relation to fair employment here. We thank the employers who compile details of their workforce annually.

The Equality Commission is celebrating its 25th anniversary this year and we have seen notable change in Northern Ireland over this time. The fair employment protections have been instrumental in driving this change. Although fair participation has not been achieved in all workplaces, we continue to encourage and support employers across Northern Ireland to continue their efforts to make this a reality.

Many people from other countries have come to work and make a new life in Northern Ireland. The extension of monitoring requirements to include nationality and ethnic origin would allow employers to refine their assessments of fair participation by community background in their organisations.”

It is a chance to strengthen and enhance the laws that have worked so well to make our workplaces less divided, more inclusive, and more accepting of difference.”

Notes:

The monitoring report presents an aggregated summary of the 3,807 valid monitoring returns received during 2022 from 105 public authorities and 3,702 private sector concerns.
Monitoring covers an estimated 62 – 65% of those in employment and includes all public and private sector employers with 11 or more employees.
The monitoring reports have reported the percentages for the community background compositions of the workforce in square brackets [ ] and are based on the Protestant and Roman Catholic community backgrounds only; the Non-Determined are excluded.

High Level Trends in the Monitored Workforce continue to show a gradual upward trend in the Roman Catholic share of the monitored workforce; this has been evident since 2001.

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