The information requested falls within the responsibility of the UK Statistics Authority. I have asked the authority to reply.
Letter from Dennis Roberts, dated November 2008:
The National Statistician has been asked to reply to your recent Parliamentary Question concerning how many full-time equivalent total employee jobs there were in English local government, according to Office for National Statistics figures, in each year since 1996.1 am replying in her absence. (232670)
The Office for National Statistics collects employment statistics for the public sector, including local government, as part of the Quarterly Public Sector Employment Survey. A consistent time-series for full-time equivalents is only available back to 1999. The requested statistics are attached at Annex A.
Full-time equivalent, Thousand, not seasonally adjusted Year1 Local government 1999 1,456 2000 1,471 2001 1,461 2002 1,466 2003 1,486 2004 1,509 2005 1,527 2006 1,552 2007 1,558 2008 1,543 1 Quarter 2 figures are used as an annual reference point. Source: (Unpublished) Quarterly Public Sector Employment Survey.