To ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster how many and what proportion of working age adults were in employment in each local authority area in each year since 1997; and if he will make a statement. (240515)

The information requested falls within the responsibility of the UK Statistics Authority. I have asked the Authority to reply.

Letter from Karen Dunnell, December 2008:

As National Statistician, I have been asked to reply to your Parliamentary Question asking how many and what proportion of working age adults were in employment in each local authority in each year since 1997. [240515]

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 shows the number of working age persons in employment (Males aged 16-64. Females Aged 16-59) in each local authority for the 12 month periods ending in February, for 1998-2004, from the annual LFS, and for the 12 month periods ending December, for 2004-2007, from the APS. Estimates for April 2007 to March 2008 from the APS have also been included as being the latest available. Table 2 shows the percentage of persons of working age ill employment for the same periods and geographies as Table 1. A copy of the tables has been placed in the Library of the House.

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

To ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster what estimate the Office for National Statistics has made of the number of new additional jobs created since 1997 in the (a) public sector and (b) private sector. (241590)

The information requested falls within the responsibility of the UK Statistics Authority. I have asked the authority to reply.

Letter from Karen Dunnell, dated December 2008:

As National Statistician I have been asked to reply to your recent Parliamentary Question concerning the number of new additional jobs created since 1997 in the (a) public sector and (b) private sector. (241590)

The Office for National Statistics collects employment statistics for the public sector as part of the Quarterly Public Sector Survey and for the private sector as part of the Labour Force Survey. However, statistics related to job creation are not collected.

However we can provide the growth in employment within both sectors. The data are attached at Annex A.

Annex A