Trade in Northern Ireland: Characteristics of businesses and workers

The vision for a 10x Economy sets out clear ambitions for Northern Ireland to focus on areas where Northern Ireland can be a global leader, in order to "Position Northern Ireland to be amongst the most competitive small advanced economies in the world".
In a supporting strategy document focussed on Trade, Trade and Investment for a 10x Economy, the Executive set out the ambition to use trade and investment as a key driver to increase wealth, prosperity and living standards in Northern Ireland. In particular, there are a number of measurable specific targets set in the strategy to increase and diversify the firms and sectors exporting (both within the UK and to the rest of the world).
In line with many other countries, including the other devolved nations within the UK, Northern Ireland's exporting base is narrow, selling a limited range of goods and services, from a small base of companies, to a relatively small number of companies. As is pointed out in the strategy document, "The top 5 sectors account for almost all (around 90%) of our external sales value.".
To support the delivery of the 10x strategy, and in particular the ambitions on trade, this project will seek to use the linked data that has been made available to add to the knowledge about the nature of trading firms and the impact they have on workers. In particular, the research would seek to answer the following two questions:
What is the nature of trading firms vs non-trading firms in NI, at a detailed sectoral level? What is the scale of employment supported by exporting in NI, and what is the nature of this employment?