The information requested falls within the responsibility of the UK Statistics Authority. I have asked the authority to reply.
Letter from Karen Dunnell, dated April 2009:
As National Statistician I have been asked to reply to your recent Parliamentary Question concerning what proportion of jobs have been in the public sector in each year since 1997. (269899).
Statistics on jobs in the public sector are not available. However we can provide the change in the number of employees (the closest available measure) for both the public and private sectors alongside total employment since 1997. These figures will therefore exclude any vacancies. The data are attached at Annex A.
Estimates of employment for the whole economy are sourced from the Labour Force Survey (published monthly), and for the public sector from the quarterly Public Sector Employment surveys. Private sector employment estimates arc derived as the difference between Labour Force Survey and public sector employment totals. It is important to acknowledge, as with any sample survey, estimates from the Labour Force Survey are subject to a margin of uncertainty.
United Kingdom, thousand, seasonally adjusted Public sector1,2,3,4 Private sector4,5 Total employment6,7 All in employment Thousand Percentage Thousand Percentage Thousand 1997 5,180 19.5 21,310 80.5 26,490 1998 5,170 19.3 21,610 80.7 26,770 1999 5,190 19.1 21,930 80.9 27,120 2000 5,270 19.1 22,2S0 80.9 27,530 2001 5,360 19.4 22,340 80.6 27,700 2002 5,470 19.6 22,420 80.4 27,890 2003 5,630 20.0 22,570 80.0 28,200 2004 5,750 20.2 22,680 79.8 28,420 2005 5,850 20.3 22,940 79.7 28,780 2006 5,810 20.0 23,220 80.0 29,030 2007 5,770 19.7 23,430 80.3 29,200 2008 5,750 19.5 23,740 80.5 29,490 1 Estimates derived from public sector organisations. 2 Estimates for Northern Ireland included in the UK total are sourced from the Quarterly Employment Survey and are based on jobs rather than employees. 3 Estimates for December 2007 onwards are based partly on projections. 4 Northern Rock plc was reclassified for statistical purposes from the private to the public sector on 9 October 2007. 5 Estimated as the difference between LFS total employment and the data from public sector organisations. 6 LFS data for September refers to August-October and December refers to November-January. 7 Labour Force Survey employment; All aged 16 and over; seasonally adjusted. Note: Details of the sampling variability of national Labour Force Survey estimates are included each month in the Labour Market Statistics First Release, available on www.statistics.gov.uk Source: Office for National Statistics (ONS) Labour Force Survey and returns from public sector organisations