Labour Market Data: Insights by ONS Experts

1. ONS Labour Market Statistics on Nomis by Bob Watson and Sinclair Sutherland

2. All about me • Bob Watson • Worked at the Office for National Statistics (ONS) or its predecessors for 25 years • Business Surveys, Financial Inquiries, National Accounts, Labour Market • Worked on Labour Market Statistics for more than 10 years • Been involved with Nomis for 8 years

3. UK Statistics Authority • an independent body operating at arm's length from government as a non-ministerial department • directly accountable to Parliament • promote and safeguard the production and publication of official statistics that serve the public good • does not deal with policy • oversight of ONS

4. Office for National Statistics (ONS) • independent of ministers and instead report through the UK Statistics Authority to Parliament and the devolved administrations • collection, compilation, analysis and dissemination of a range of key economic, social and demographic statistics • does not deal with policy

5. Nomis • part of the ONS web estate, for the dissemination of official statistics • operated on behalf of the ONS by the University of Durham • houses a range of government statistical information • has been disseminating statistics for 35 years

6. Nomis – Current Data • Annual Civil Service Employment Survey • Annual Population Survey/Labour Force Survey • Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings • Business Register Employment Survey • Census of Population • Claimant Count • DWP Benefits • Jobcentre Plus Vacancies (discontinued) • Jobs Density • Population Estimates • UK Business Counts • VAT Registrations and Stocks (discontinued) • Workforce Jobs

7. Annual Population Survey (APS)/Labour Force Survey (LFS) • LFS is a survey of households living at private addresses in the UK • Its purpose is to provide information on the UK labour market • Interviews with around 100,000 individuals in 40,000 households every three months • APS is an annual dataset using certain LFS interviews with some additional boost interviews • APS dataset has around 320,000 individuals

8. LFS/APS and Policy • APS is part funded by a number of government departments • Some questions/topics are required by European legislation • Some questions/topics are to meet wider policy needs of the funding departments • Topics include: • labour market status, employment details, education/qualifications, benefits, health, country of birth/ethnicity/nationality, well being

9. APS Sample Size • 320,000 people • 200,000 people aged 16 to 64 years • 500 people per local authority • 25 unemployed people per local authority • 10 unemployed youth per local authority • ...and I wanted to look at differences in qualifications of young unemployed males and females in my local authority

10. LFS and Zero Hours ContractsHow hard can it be to measure? • people are not generally employed on “zero hours contracts” – but they may have a contract that does not guarantee a minimum number of hours • a question regarding special working hours arrangement asks whether hours are: • flexitime; annualised hours; term-time; job share; nine-day fortnight; four-and-a-half-day week; zero hours contract; on-call; none of the above • reminder – LFS is a household survey, interviewing individuals • the interviewee needs to know about their contract of employment, have heard about zero hour contracts, and recognise that their contract of employment is a zero hour contract • 5 years ago hardly anyone had heard of zero hour contracts, so hardly anyone was saying they were on zero hour contracts • some of the initial growth in reported zero hour contracts is due to growth in awareness

11. Claimant Count • Claimant Count is the number of live claims for benefit principally for the reason of being unemployed • Until April 2013 this was measured using the number of claimants of Jobseeker’s Allowance (JSA) • From April 2013 the new Universal Credit pathfinders started • Some live claims for benefit principally for the reason of being unemployed were UC claims rather than JSA claims • Statistical information on UC claimants was not available

12. Claimant Count • May 2013 - Statistical information on UC claimants was not available • Claimant Count based on JSA only - undercount • Speed of rollout was slow, so impact was initially small • All series available on this basis • Dec 2013 - Statistical information on all UC claimants became available • Claimant Count based on JSA plus UC – overcount because not all UC claimants unemployed • Overcount likely to be closer than undercount • Only headline measures on this basis

13. Claimant Count • Nov 2014 - Statistical information on out-of-work UC claimants became available • Claimant Count based on JSA plus out-of-work UK – overcount because not all UC claimants unemployed • Initially overcount smaller than previous overcount, but overcount growing as rollout scope widens • A wider range of measures available inc local and age • From late 2015 - a Nomis dataset available on this basis allowing for age band and geographic exploration • ??? 2016 – Statistical information on unemployed UC claimants may become available • Fingers crossed

14. New Datasets for Nomis • ONS will continue to use Nomis for statistical dissemination for the foreseeable future • We are looking to maximise the use of Nomis for suitable datasets • Claimant Count • Population Estimates • Mortality Statistics • More ASHE data • Marriages • Births • Others (external)

15. Thanks for listening Bob Watson Subnational Labour Market Office for National Statistics Bob.Watson@ons.gov.uk Sinclair Sutherland Nomis University of Durham www.nomisweb.co.uk