Skip to main content

Young People: Employment

Volume 458: debated on Wednesday 28 March 2007

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer (1) how many people aged under 25 years are in full-time employment; (130192)

(2) how many people are employed to work fewer than 30 hours per week;

(3) how many people aged 16 to 18 years are in (a) full-time and (b) part-time employment.

The information requested falls within the responsibility of the National Statistician who has been asked to reply.

Letter from Karen Dunnell, dated 28 March 2007:

As National Statistician, I have been asked to reply to your recent Parliamentary Questions asking (1) how many people aged under 25 years are in full-time employment, (2) how many people aged 16 to 18 years are in (a) full-time and (b) part-time employment and (3) how many people are employed to work less than 30 hours per week and. Responses to these questions have been combined in this reply. (130192, 130193, 130194)

Table 1, attached, gives estimates of the numbers of men and women, in full-time and part-time employment for the age bands, 16 to 17 and 16 to 24. Table 2 shows those who work less than 31 hours and 31 or more hours per week, for the three months ending December 2006. These estimates are not seasonally adjusted.

Each month the Office for National Statistics publishes estimates of the number of people working full-time and part-time in the UK, in table 3 of the Labour Market Statistics First Release available in the attached link:

http://www.statistics.gov.uk/downloads/theme_labour/LMS_FR_HSAVebTable03.xls.

Similarly, estimates of usual weekly hours are available from Table 8 of the same release:

http://www.statistics.gov.uk/pdfdir/lmsuk0307.pdf.

Estimates are taken from the Labour Force Survey (LFS). As with any sample survey, estimates from the LFS are subject to a margin of uncertainty.

Table 1. People aged under 25 years in full-time and part-time employment by gender United Kingdom, not seasonally adjusted

Thousand

Age

Three months ending December 2006

16-24

16-17

18-24

All persons

Total in employment1

4,036

594

3,442

Full-time2

2,584

140

2,445

Part-time2

1,448

454

994

Male

Total in employment1

2,061

277

1,784

Full-time2

1,486

90

1,396

Part-time2

573

186

387

Female

Total in employment1

1,976

318

1,658

Full-time2

1,098

50

1,049

Part-time2

875

268

607

1 Includes those who did not state whether they worked full or part-time.

2 Full and part time is based on respondents' self assessment, not on hours worked.

Source: ONS Labour Force Survey (LFS)

Table 2. People in employment by hours worked and gender United Kingdom, not seasonally adjusted

Thousand

Three months ending December 2006

All persons

Male

Female

Total in employment1

28,519

15,274

13,246

Less then 30 hours2

7,422

1,751

5,671

31+ hours2

20,349

13,061

7,288

1 Includes those who did not state the hours they usually work.

2 Based on total hours usually worked and includes paid/unpaid overtime.

Source:

ONS Labour Force Survey (LFS)