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Employment

Answer

The information requested falls within the responsibility of the UK Statistics Authority. I have asked the authority to reply.Letter from Karen Dunnell:"As National Statistician, I have been asked to reply to your Parliamentary Question asking pursuant to the Answer of 12 January 2009, Official Report, columns 479-82W, on employment, how many (a) UK nationals, (b) UK-born people, (c) foreign nationals, (d) non-UK EU nationals and (e) non-EU nationals of working age were in employment in (i) the public sector and (ii) the private sector in each of the last eight quarters for which figures are available; and what the percentage change between 1997 and the last year for which figures are available was in respect of categories (i) and (ii). (281118)""The information requested is shown in the attached table. The estimates are derived from the Labour Force Survey. 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.""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 in the table are derived from the LFS microdata which are weighted using the official population estimates published in autumn 2007. They are not entirely consistent with the figures published in the monthly Labour Market Statistics Statistical Bulletin, or the migrant worker figures published every quarter, which are weighted using more up-to-date population estimates."

Employment levels for people of working age¹ in employment by public and private sector and by nationality and country of birth, three months ending March 1997 and three months ending March, June, September and December, 2007-09, United Kingdom, not seasonally adjusted
Thousand
	Public sector², ³	Private sector², 4
	UK nationals	UK born	Non-UK nationals6	Non-UK EU nationals7	Non-EU nationals7	UK nationals	UK born	Non-UK nationals6	Non-UK EU nationals7	Non-EU nationals7
1997 Q1	5,696	5,473	203	88	115	18,657	17,929	690	310	381
2007 Q2	6,286	5,976	375	127	248	19,390	18,434	1,715	841	874
2007 Q3	6,214	5,900	367	136	231	19,688	18,681	1,731	830	900
2007 Q4	6,305	5,979	367	148	218	19,618	18,617	1,795	859	936
2008 Q1	6,299	5,970	384	136	249	19,447	18,457	1,853	925	928
2008 Q2	6,349	6,025	375	138	236	19,404	18,388	1,872	917	955
2008 Q3	6,293	5,973	373	134	238	19,513	18,493	1,895	906	988
2008 Q4	6,387	6,052	390	124	266	19,245	18,206	1,938	923	1,015
2009 Q18	*6,443	*6,109	**381	***113	**268	*18,891	*17,842	*1,919	*979	*940
Percentage change between 1997 Q1 and 2009 Q1	13	12	88	n/a	n/a	1	0	178	n/a	n/a

Thousand
	Employment4, 5
	UK nationals	UK born	Non-UK nationals6	Non-UK EU nationals7	Non-EU nationals7
1997 Q1	24,551	23,589	906	401	505
2007 Q2	25,784	24,508	2,103	969	1,134
2007 Q3	26,023	24,694	2,113	969	1,144
2007 Q4	26,050	24,718	2,173	1,010	1,163
2008 Q1	25,870	24,547	2,254	1,068	1,186
2008 Q2	25,882	24,532	2,266	1,065	1,201
2008 Q3	25,928	24,580	2,279	1,045	1,234
2008 Q4	25,749	24,372	2,342	1,052	1,290
2009 Q18	*25,454	*24,067	*2,313	*1,097	*1,215
Percentage change between 1997 Q1 and 2009 Q1	4	2	155	n/a	n/a
¹ Men aged 16-64 and women aged 16-59.
² 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.
³ 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.
4 Includes self-employed and unpaid family workers.
5 Includes those whose type of employer was not known.
6 Excludes those whose nationality was not known.
7 Other EU comprises Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Portugal, Spain and Sweden only in 1997 Q1. Meaningful comparisons between 1997 Q1 and 2009 Q1 are not possible due to the changes in the composition of EU.
8 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% 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
Note:
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

494 c797-800W; 281118

Session

2008-09

Related items

Employment
Monday, 12 January 2009
Written questions
House of Commons

Subjects

Employment

Contains statistics

Yes

Link

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