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Foreign Workers

Answer

The information requested falls within the responsibility of the UK statistics Authority. I have asked the Authority to reply.Letter from Karen Dunnell, dated 5 May 2009:"As National Statistician, I have been asked to reply to your Parliamentary Question asking, pursuant to the Answer of 2 March 2009, Official Report, column 1353W, on employment level: private sector, what estimate the Office for National Statistics has made of the number of individuals who were not British citizens who were employed in the (a) public and (b) private sector in (i) 1997 and (ii) the most recent period for which figures are available. (271941)""The available information for non-UK nationals aged 16 and over is provided in the attached table.""The estimates are derived from the Labour Force Survey (LFS). The distinction between public and private sector is based on respondents' views about the organisation for which they work. The public sector estimates provided do not correspond to official Public Sector Employment estimates. Those are derived directly from employers and are based on National Accounts definitions, but do not include a nationality breakdown.""Citizenship is defined as the nationality reported by the respondents at the time of the survey.""As with any sample survey, estimates from the LFS are subject to a margin of uncertainty. This is assessed in a footnote to the table.""The figures have been derived from the LFS microdata which are weighted using the official population estimates published in autumn 2007. Consequently the 2008 estimate is not entirely consistent with the figures published in the monthly Labour Market Statistics First Release, which are weighted using more up-to-date population estimates."

Non-UK nationals aged 16 and over employed In the public and private sector three month period ending December, 1997 and 2008—United Kingdom, not seasonally adjusted
Thousands
	Private sector¹, ³	Public sector¹, ²	Total4
1997	766	235	1,005
20085	*1,970	**401	*2,385
¹ It should be noted that public and private sector estimates;
- are based on survey respondents' views about the organisation for which they work;
- do not correspond to the National Accounts definition used for Public Sector Employment estimates.
² Includes nationalised Industry or state corporation, central government, civil service, local government or council (incl. police, fire services and local authority controlled schools or colleges), university or other grant funded educational establishment, health authority or NHS trust and armed forces.
³ Includes self-employed and unpaid family workers.
4 Includes those whose type of employer was not known.
5 Coefficients of Variation have been calculated for the latest period as an indication of the quality of the estimates, as described below:
Guide to Quality:
The Coefficient of Variation (CV) indicates the quality of an estimate, the smaller the CV value the higher the quality. The true value is likely to lie within +/- twice the CV—for example, for an estimate of 200 with a CV of 5 per cent. we would expect the population total to be within the range 180-220
Key Coefficient of Variation (CV) (%) Statistical Robustness
* 0 = CV<5 Estimates are considered precise
** 5 = CV <10 Estimates are considered reasonably precise
*** 10 = CV <20 Estimates are considered acceptable
**** CV 20 Estimates are considered too unreliable for practical purposes
It should be noted that the above estimates exclude people In most types of communal establishment {e.g. hotels, boarding houses, hostels mobile home sites etc.)
Source:
Labour Force Survey

Secondary information

Type

Written question

Reference

492 c93-4W; 271941

Session

2008-09

Related items

Employment Level: Private Sector
Monday, 2 March 2009
Written questions
House of Commons

Subjects

Migrant workers

Contains statistics

Yes

Link

View this Written question on www.publications.parliament.uk