To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how many people were in employment in Vale of Clwyd constituency in each of the last 11 years. (196176)

[holding answer 25 March 2008]: The information requested falls within the responsibility of the National Statistician who has been asked to reply.

Letter from Jil Matheson, dated 31 March 2008:

The National Statistician has been asked to reply to your Parliamentary Question asking how many people were in employment in Vale of Clwyd constituency in each of the last 11 years. I am replying in her absence. (196176)

The Office for National Statistics compiles employment statistics for local areas from the Annual Population Survey (APS) and its predecessor the annual Labour Force Survey (LFS) following International Labour Organisation definitions.

Table 1, attached, shows the number of people aged 16 and over, resident in the Vale of Clwyd constituency, who were in employment in each of the last 11 years. Estimates are obtained from the annual LFS for each 12 month period from 1997 to 2004. For time series comparisons, the APS estimates from 2005 to 2007 are provided covering the 12 month periods ending in March, but the most recently released estimate is also included, which covers the 12 month period ending in June 2007.

As these estimates are for a subset of the population in a small geographical area, they are based on small sample sizes, and are therefore subject to large margins of uncertainty.

In order to produce estimates for small geographical areas, APS and annual LFS estimates are provided based on survey microdata. These are consistent with the UK population estimates published in February and March 2003, whereas the regional and national estimates published in the Labour Market Statistics First Release are based on more up-to-date population figures, so the two are not directly comparable.