Labour Market Profile - Great Britain

Print

Resident Population

Labour Supply

Out-Of-Work Benefits

Under Universal Credit a broader span of claimants are required to look for work than under Jobseeker's Allowance. As Universal Credit Full Service is rolled out in particular areas, the number of people recorded as being on the Claimant Count is therefore likely to rise. The seasonally adjusted estimates in this table are consistent with the headline JSA measure.

The estimates in the table below are not consistent with the headline claimant measure. However, they are consitent with the local area figures.

Labour Demand

Businesses

Definitions and Explanations

Resident Population

The estimated population of an area includes all those usually resident in the area, whatever their nationality. HM Forces stationed outside the United Kingdom are excluded but foreign forces stationed here are included. Students are taken to be resident at their term-time address.

Labour Supply

Labour supply consists of people who are employed, as well as those people defined as unemployed or economically inactive, who can be considered to be potential labour supply. Information in this section relates to the characteristics of people living in an area.

Most labour supply data comes from the Annual Population Survey (APS). The APS is the largest regular household survey in the United Kingdom. It includes data from the Labour Force Survey (LFS), plus further sample boosts in England, Wales and Scotland. The survey includes data from a sample of around 256,000 people aged 16 and over.

As APS estimates are based on samples, they are subject to sampling variability. This means that if another sample for the same period were drawn, a different estimate might be produced. In general, the larger the number of people in a sample, the smaller the variation between estimates. Estimates for smaller areas such as local authorities are therefore less reliable than those for larger areas such as regions. When the sample size is too small to produce reliable estimates, the estimates are replaced with a #.

Economically Active

Economically active

People who are either in employment or unemployed.

Economic activity rate

People, who are economically active, expressed as a percentage of all people.

In employment

People who did some paid work in the reference week (whether as an employee or self employed); those who had a job that they were temporarily away from (eg, on holiday); those on government-supported training and employment programmes; and those doing unpaid family work.

Employment rate

The number of people in employment expressed as a percentage of all people aged 16-64.

Employees and self employed

The division between employees and self employed is based on survey respondents' own assessment of their employment status. The percentage show the number in each category as a percentage of all people aged 16-64. The sum of employees and self employed will not equal the in employment figure due to the inclusion of those on government-supported training and employment programmes, and those doing unpaid family work in the latter.

Unemployed

Refers to people without a job who were available to start work in the two weeks following their interview and who had either looked for work in the four weeks prior to interview or were waiting to start a job they had already obtained.

Unemployment rate

Unemployed as a percentage of the economically active population.

Economically inactive

Economically inactive

People who are neither in employment nor unemployed. This group includes, for example, all those who were looking after a home or retired.

Wanting a job

People not in employment who want a job but are not classed as unemployed because they have either not sought work in the last four weeks or are not available to start work.

Not wanting a job

People who are neither in employment nor unemployed and who do not want a job.

Workless Households

Households

A household is defined as a single person, or a group of people living at the same address who have the address as their only or main residence and either share one main meal a day or share living accommodation (or both). For the purposes of this table, estimates only include those households where at least 1 person is aged 16 to 64.

Workless households

Households where no-one aged 16 or over is in employment. These members may be unemployed or economically inactive. Economically inactive members may be unavailable to work because of family commitments, retirement or study, or unable to work through sickness or disability.

Children

Children refers to all children under 16.

Occupation

Occupations are classified according to the Standard Occupation Classification 2010. Descriptions of the job titles included in each code are available in the SOC manuals.

Qualifications

Qualifications data are only available from the APS for calendar year periods, for example, Jan to Dec 2022. From Jan to Dec 2022, qualifications are measured using the Registered Qualifications Framework (RQFs). Under RQFs, Trade Apprenticeships are accurately classified to the relevant levels. For Jan to Dec 2021 and prior, qualifications were measured using the National Vocational Qualifications framework (NVQs). The trade apprenticeships were split 50/50 between NVQ levels 2 and 3.

The variables show the total number of people who are qualified at a particular level and above, so data in this table are not additive. Separate figures for each RQF/NVQ level are available in the full Annual Population Survey data set (Query data).

No qualifications

No formal qualifications held.

Other qualifications

includes foreign qualifications and some professional qualifications.

RQF/NVQ 1 equivalent

e.g. fewer than 5 GCSEs at grades A-C, foundation GNVQ, NVQ 1, intermediate 1 national qualification (Scotland) or equivalent.

RQF/NVQ 2 equivalent

e.g. 5 or more GCSEs at grades A-C, intermediate GNVQ, NVQ 2, intermediate 2 national qualification (Scotland) or equivalent.

RQF/NVQ 3 equivalent

e.g. 2 or more A levels, advanced GNVQ, NVQ 3, 2 or more higher or advanced higher national qualifications (Scotland) or equivalent.

RQF/NVQ 4 equivalent and above

e.g. HND, Degree and Higher Degree level qualifications or equivalent.

Earnings by Place of Residence

The figures show the median earnings in pounds for employees living in the area who are on adults rates of pay and whose pay was not affected by absence. Figures for earnings come from the Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings (ASHE). The ASHE is based on a 1 per cent sample of employees, information on whose earnings and hours is obtained from employers. The survey does not cover self-employed. Information relates to a pay period in April.

The earnings information collected relates to gross pay before tax, national insurance or other deductions, and excludes payments in kind. It is restricted to earnings relating to the survey pay period and so excludes payments of arrears from another period made during the survey period; any payments due as a result of a pay settlement but not yet paid at the time of the survey will also be excluded.

Out-Of-Work Benefits

Claimant Count (Experimental Statistics)

The Claimant Count is the number of people claiming benefit principally for the reason of being unemployed. This is measured by combining the number of people claiming Jobseeker's Allowance (JSA) and National Insurance credits with the number of people receiving Universal Credit principally for the reason of being unemployed. Claimants declare that they are out of work, capable of, available for and actively seeking work during the week in which the claim is made.

The measure of the number of people receiving Universal Credit principally for the reason of being unemployed is still being developed by the Department for Work and Pensions. Consequently this component of the total Claimant Count does not yet correctly reflect the target population of unemployed claimants and is subject to revisions. For this reason the Claimant Count is currently designated as Experimental Statistics.

The Claimant Count is mostly derived from DWP administrative systems. For various reasons, e.g. a claimant's National Insurance number is not known, a small number of claims have to be dealt with manually. These clerical claims do not have as much detail as the computerised claims and therefore, whilst part of the claimant count by sex table, cannot be included the age breakdown.

Seasonal Adjustment

Like many economic indicators, the labour market is affected by factors that tend to occur at around the same time every year; for example, school leavers entering the labour market in July and whether Easter falls in March or April. In order to aid comparison of movements, other than annual changes in labour market statistics, some headline measures are seasonally adjusted to remove the effects of seasonal factors and the arrangement of the calendar. However, due to resource constraints, it is not possible to seasonally adjust all series. So for those that have not been seasonally adjusted, the figures will still be influenced by seasonal effects.

Rates by age

Unemployment benefits normally only apply to people aged 18 years and over. They can only be claimed by 16 and 17 year olds in exceptional circumstances. Consequently the counts for this age group are typically very low.

DWP Working-Age Client Group

From August 2017 DWP discontinued this dataset when they changed the way they publish their benefit statistics. The last period of data is the November 2016 figures published in May 2017.

The number of working-age people who are claiming one or more main DWP benefits. The main benefits are: bereavement benefit, carer's allowance, disability living allowance, ESA and incapacity benefit, severe disablement allowance, income support, jobseeker's allowance, and widow's benefit. The age at which women reach State Pension age is gradually increasing from 60 to 65 between April 2010 and April 2020. Throughout this period, only women below State Pension age are counted as working age benefit claimants."

The total count is broken down by statistical groups. These categorise each person according to the main reason why they are claiming benefit. Each client is classified to a single group.

Benefits are arranged hierarchically and claimants are assigned to a group according to the top most benefit they receive. Thus a person who is a lone parent and receives Incapacity Benefit would be classified as incapacity benefits. Consequently, the group lone parent will not contain all lone parents as some will be included in the incapacity benefits group and Job seekers groups.

Main out-of-work benefits consists of the groups: job seekers, ESA and incapacity benefits, lone parents and others on income related benefits.

These groups have been chosen to best represent a count of all those benefit recipients who cannot be in full-time employment as part of their condition of entitlement. Those claiming solely Bereavement Benefits or Disability Living Allowance (DLA) are not included as these are not out-of-work or income based benefits. DLA is paid to those needing help with personal care. These people can, and some will, be in full-time employment. If DLA claimants are also in receipt of JSA, IS, ESA or Incapacity Benefits in addition to DLA they will be counted under the relevant statistical group. In addition, we exclude those claiming solely carer's benefits or claiming carer's benefits alongside income support, as DWP does not pursue active labour market policies for this group. Carers benefits are paid to those with full time caring responsibilities. The group entitled to Carer's benefits alongside Income Support (IS) includes around 86,000 claimants and has been stable over time.

This Nomis series is different to that published in the Office for National Statistics (ONS) Labour Market Statistics Bulletin (table 25) and on the DWP website at http://tabulation-tool.dwp.gov.uk/100pc/wa/tabtool_wa.html (against the link entitled "One-Click" Key Out-of-Work Benefits). This Nomis series uses DWP Jobseeker's Allowance numbers, whilst the other two series use the ONS Jobseeker's Allowance figures, using different methods and reference periods.

Copyright

Under the terms of the Open Government Licence (OGL) and UK Government Licensing Framework (launched 30 September 2010), anyone wishing to use or re-use ONS material, whether commercially or privately, may do so freely without a specific application for a licence, subject to the conditions of the OGL and the Framework.

These new arrangements replace the previous Click-Use and Value Added Licences. For further information, go to the links above, phone 020 8876 3444 or email psi@nationalarchives.gov.uk

Users should include a source accreditation to ONS:

Source: Office for National Statistics

Copyright of a third party

The permission to reproduce Crown protected material does not extend to any material on this site which is identified as being authored by a third party. Authorisation to reproduce such material must be obtained from the copyright holders concerned.