asked the Secretary of State for Employment how average earnings are arrived at; and which industries and firms are used in the sample.
, pursuant to his reply [Official Report, 9th December 1977; Vol. 940, c. 931], gave the following information:As explained in the reply given to my hon. Friend the Member for Newham, North-West (Mr. Lewis) on 9th December 1977—
Official Report, Vol. 940, c. 929–30—several forms of average earnings are calculated. Each particular average depends on the information available and the purpose and scope of the survey through which it is obtained. In the New Earnings Survey, information is collected for a random 1 per cent. sample of individual employees from their employers. Consequently any firm in any industry may be required to supply information. Other earnings surveys generally include all the largest undertakings, samples of others, but possibly none of the smallest. Some cover either specific industries, or groups of industries. The surveys are designed to provide results with the required degree of reliability with the minimum amount of form-filling. They are described in the introductory notes to the British Labour Statistics Yearbooks which are available in the Library.