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Treasury;Office for National Statistics

Answer

Mr. George Osborne: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how many people were economically inactive and what the economic inactivity rate was for each quarter since Quarter 1 1997, broken down by (a) qualification level, (b) income bracket, (c) former profession where applicable, (d) age group and (e) sex, in each (i) constituency and (ii) region. [152932] Ruth Kelly: The information requested falls within the responsibility of the National Statistician, who has been asked to reply. Letter from Len Cook to Mr. George Osborne, dated 9 February 2004: As National Statistician, I have been asked to reply to your recent Parliamentary Question about economic inactivity. (152932) I regret that this information could only be provided in full at disproportionate cost. However, some of the higher-level information requested is published on the ONS website, or on the Nomis( database, both of which are available via the House of Commons Library. Information about economic inactivity levels by age and sex in each region is published in Table 10 of the Labour Market Statistics Regional First Releases, which can be accessed from the following page on the ONS website: http://www.statistics.gov.uk/ press release/Archive.asp. These estimates, from the Labour Force Survey (LFS), are subject to revisions. LFS estimates published in the Regional First Releases prior to 13 November 2003 are not directly comparable with current data. As with any sample survey, estimates from the LFS are subject to sampling variability. ONS does not publish estimates of economic inactivity rates by age and sex for each region. However, these can be calculated by subtracting the economic activity rate (published in Table 9 of the Regional First Releases) from 100 per cent. For Parliamentary Constituency areas, ONS produces information about economic inactivity rates, but not levels, by age and sex. This information is available on a yearly basis and can be obtained from the Nomis( database.

Secondary information

Type

Written question

Reference

152932; 417 c1166W

Session

2003-04

Subjects

Age Gender Income Qualifications Professions Unemployment Unemployed people

Link

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