1. Executive summary

In December 2018, the government presented to Parliament a White Paper Help Shape our Future: The 2021 Census of Population and Housing in England and Wales (PDF, 967KB). This outlined the Office for National Statistics' (ONS') proposal to collect information on economic activity and hours worked to meet the needs of central and local government to develop strategies to promote economic growth and to identify and address economic inequalities.

This report details the development of the questions on employment activity last week, reasons for not working, looking for work, availability to work, waiting to start a job already accepted, ever worked and hours worked.

As in previous censuses, the question will only be asked of people who are aged 16 years or older.

Census 2021 will be an online-first census, with a target of 75% online returns. We have reviewed and tested each question online and have recommended additional design and functionality amends specific to the electronic questionnaire. We have also recommended additional changes to the question designs following our stakeholder engagement, evaluation and testing programmes. These changes will be detailed in this report.

The main recommended changes to question designs are:

  • the removal of the write-in box for year last worked; respondents no longer need to enter this information

  • to simplify and shorten questions; for example, the question "In your main job, how many hours a week (including paid and unpaid overtime) do you usually work?" has been shortened to "How many hours a week do you usually work?" with a separate instruction "include paid and unpaid overtime"

  • to replace incomplete question stems, for example, "Last week, were you:", with complete questions, for example, "In the last seven days, were you doing any of the following?"

Any additional changes to question designs, including online functionality and accessibility, will be detailed in the sections Research that led to the 2018 White Paper and Research that led to the recommended Census 2021 question designs.

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2. Aim of question development report

Since the publication of the White Paper, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) has conducted and concluded the final phase of testing on economic activity and hours worked. Occupation, industry, travel to work, economic activity and hours worked are all part of the labour market topic. We have also published a report covering the questions on occupation and travel to work.

This report details the development of questions on:

  • employment activity last week

  • reasons for not working

  • looking for work

  • availability to work

  • waiting to start a job already accepted

  • ever worked

  • hours worked

The report on occupation, industry and travel to work details the development of questions on:

  • employment status

  • organisation name

  • job title

  • job description

  • main activity

  • supervisory status

  • method of travel to work

  • place of work

  • workplace address

This report provides links to previously published research and the findings of additional testing that led to the final recommended questions for Census 2021 in England and Wales. The questions and response options for Census 2021 have now been finalised through the census secondary legislation: the Census (England and Wales) Order 2020, and Census Regulations for England and for Wales.

The evidence base for the question designs for Census 2021 is discussed in the section Research that led to the recommended Census 2021 question design.

Annex 4 provides details of the definitions and terms used in this report.

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3. Research and development timeline

In June 2015, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) held a formal, 12-week consultation process asking census users for their views on the topics that were required in the questionnaire in England and Wales. The aim of the consultation was to promote discussion and encourage the development of strong cases for topics to be included in Census 2021.

In May 2016, we published our response to the 2021 Census topic consultation. This set out our updated view on the topics to be included in Census 2021, including:

  • a summary of proposals for new topics

  • next steps

  • an overview of our plans

This response included a commitment to continue to collect data on economic activity and hours worked and to not to collect data on year last worked, but to explore the potential of administrative data sources for these data.

The 2021 Census topic consultation revealed a clear requirement for information on economic activity and hours worked to underpin local strategies, understand and address inequalities, and promote economic growth.

A detailed summary of the consultation responses relating to the labour market topic, that includes economic activity and hours worked, can be found in the labour market topic report (PDF, 809KB). In this report, we made clear commitments to the public.

Our commitments regarding economic activity and hours worked were:

We provide an update on how we met these commitments in Annex 1.

Following this, we began a comprehensive programme of research and development. We provide a full list of the tests used in the development of the questions on economic activity and hours worked in Annex 2. Further details are provided in the summary of testing for Census 2021.

The tests used a range of qualitative and quantitative research methods. A short description of the different research methods and sampling techniques is given in the question and questionnaire development overview for Census 2021. Testing included respondents from a wide range of backgrounds.

In December 2018, the government presented to Parliament a White Paper Help Shape our Future: The 2021 Census of Population and Housing in England and Wales (PDF, 967KB). This outlined our proposal to keep collecting data on economic activity and hours worked.

The questions for Census 2021 are now finalised. We have evaluated the questions for their potential impact on data quality, public acceptability, respondent burden, financial concerns and questionnaire mode. We present details of this evaluation in Annex 3.

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6. Annex 1: Census commitments made on economic activity and hours worked

In the Census 2021 topic consultation response, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) made clear commitments to the public. We committed to continuing to ask about economic activity and hours worked. We made three further commitments.

Our commitments were:

  • to ensure that the questions align with changing international definitions such as the International Labour Organization's (ILO's) 2013 Resolution concerning statistics of work, employment and labour underutilization and ensure that the labour market concepts remain consistent with those collected in the Labour Force Survey (LFS)

  • to use the responses to the ONS Consultation on revising the Standard Occupational Classification 2010 (SOC2010) to inform the detailed quality requirements for the National Statistics Socio-economic Classification (NS-SEC) and whether this identifies any further scope for reducing the sub-topics needed to derive the current version of NS-SEC used in census outputs

  • to explore how the online questions can improve the collection of the data while still meeting user needs

Ensuring that the questions align with changing international definitions and the concepts remain consistent with those collected in the LFS

We have ensured that any changes to questions provide outputs consistent with the LFS.

Following a change in the ILO definition of unpaid training as a form of economic activity, we removed the response "On a government sponsored training scheme" from the employment activity last week question.

Investigating any potential to reduce the data collected via the Census that is used in the derivation of NS-SEC

In the 2011 Census, respondents were asked to write in the year they last worked. These data were used to derive the NS-SEC definitions of long-term unemployed as someone who has worked, but not in the last 12 months. However, respondents who had not worked for some time found it difficult to answer and non-response was relatively high, which led to poor data quality.

We have revised the ever worked question response options to tick-boxes, in line with NS-SEC definitions: "Yes, in the last 12 months", "Yes, but not in the last 12 months" and "No, have never worked". This provides the data necessary for NS-SEC derivations and reduces respondent burden.

Improving data collection online while meeting user needs

Our development process, as outlined in this report, has aimed to improve the quality of data by making it easier for respondents to answer the questions. We have followed best practices, including Government Digital Service Standards, when designing and developing the electronic questionnaire. We present further details of new functionality in the electronic questionnaire designed to improve the online experience in the question and questionnaire development overview for Census 2021.

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7. Annex 2: Summary of research undertaken on the economic activity and hours worked questions, 2017 to 2020

References to tests take the form (Year: Test number). “Year” refers to the calendar year the test was undertaken in and the test number is the position of the test within the year considering all testing that took place in that year. For example, the fifth test conducted in 2017 would be referenced as (2017:5).

A full description of each of these items can be found in summary of testing for Census 2021.

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8. Annex 3: Question evaluation

Evaluation of reasons for not working, waiting to start work and hours of work questions

Potential for impact of these questions on data quality, public acceptability, respondent burden, financial concerns and questionnaire mode was assessed as "Low".

Evaluation of employment activity last week question

Potential for impact of this question on data quality, public acceptability, respondent burden and financial concerns was assessed as "Low".

Potential for impact on questionnaire mode: "Medium"

This question contains sensitive information and answers could be subject to social desirability bias. This question also has mutually exclusive response options, which are only enforced online.

Evaluation of looking for work question

Potential for impact of this question on data quality, public acceptability, respondent burden and financial concerns was assessed as "Low".

Potential for impact on questionnaire mode: "Medium"

The online question has guidance text in an accordion and enforces the mutually exclusive response options.

Evaluation of availability to work question

Potential for impact of this question on data quality, public acceptability, respondent burden and financial concerns was assessed as "Low".

Potential for impact on questionnaire mode: "Medium"

This question has a slightly different question stem online and uses radio buttons to enforce the mutually exclusive response options.

Evaluation of ever worked question

Potential for impact of this question on data quality, public acceptability, respondent burden and financial concerns was assessed as "Low".

Potential for impact on questionnaire mode: "Medium"

The online question uses radio buttons to ensure only one answer is given and respondents are also required to answer this question before proceeding to the next set of questions.

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9. Annex 4: Definitions and terms used in this report

Employed or unemployed

A person is employed if they:

  • do paid work (either as an employee or self-employed)

  • have a job they are temporarily away from

  • are placed with employers on government supported training or employment programmes

  • do unpaid work for their own or their family's business

A person is unemployed if they either:

  • do not have a job, have actively sought work in the past four weeks, and are available to start work in the next two weeks

  • have found a job and are waiting to start in the next two weeks

The definitions of employed and unemployed are the same as those used by the Labour Force Survey (LFS). This is to ensure the data are comparable.

Economically active or inactive

A person is economically active if they are aged 16 years or over and either employed or unemployed.

A person is economically inactive if they are aged 16 years or over, do not have a job, have not actively sought work in the past four weeks, and/or are not available to start work in the next two weeks.

The definitions of economically active or inactive are the same as those used by the LFS. This is to ensure the data are comparable.

Long-term unemployed

The Census uses the National Statistics Socio-economic classification (NS-SEC) definition of long-term unemployment. A person is considered long-term unemployed if they:

  • have been unemployed for a period of 12 months or more

  • have never worked

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