Cynnwys
- Abstract
- Benchmarking Great Britain employee jobs to the Business Register Employment Survey
- Seasonal adjustment
- Changes to estimates of Public Sector Employment
- Late or revised data
- Government Supported Trainees
- Useful links
- Annex A – Workforce Jobs sources
- Annex B – Revision tables, workforce jobs by component
1. Abstract
This article explains the developments and revisions to the workforce jobs (WFJ) series, released by Office for National Statistics (ONS) on 17 December 2019 in the Labour market statistical bulletin.
Workforce jobs is a quarterly measure of the number of jobs in the UK and is the preferred measure of the change in jobs by industry. It is a compound source that draws on a range of employer surveys, household surveys and administrative sources. WFJ is the sum of employee jobs (EJ) measured primarily by employer surveys (predominantly the Short-Term Employment Surveys (STES) and the Quarterly Public Sector Employment Survey (QPSES), self-employment jobs (SEJ) from the Labour Force Survey (LFS), and government-supported trainees (GST) and Her Majesty’s Forces (HMF) from administrative sources and LFS. A variety of outputs by industry, region, gender and full-time or part-time status are produced for a range of publications and users.
This article explains, in detail, the revisions that have been made to the WFJ series since December 2018 as a result of:
benchmarking to the latest estimates from the annual Business Register and Employment Survey (BRES); these revisions will go back to December 2016
changes to seasonal parameters following a seasonal adjustment review; these revisions will go back to March 1982, however due to rounding will only appear from March 1987 in Annex B
revisions to Public Sector Employment (PSE) (impact on WFJ begins in March 2018).
revisions to STES for June 2018 onwards, due to updates in data supplied or late data
re-weighting of series sourced from the Labour Force Survey back to June 2012
revisions back to June 2018 to the government-supported trainees (GSTs) series due to revised data from the devolved administrations
Figure 1: Previously published compared with revised UK seasonally adjusted workforce jobs
March 1981 to September 2019
Source: Office for National Statistics
Download this chart Figure 1: Previously published compared with revised UK seasonally adjusted workforce jobs
Image .csv .xls2. Benchmarking Great Britain employee jobs to the Business Register Employment Survey
Benchmarking is an annual process to align the quarterly Great Britain employee jobs (EJ) series to the latest estimates from the Business Register and Employment Survey (BRES). BRES is based on a sample of approximately 86,000 reporting units1, a much larger sample than the Short-Term Employment Surveys (STES), and so generally is considered to produce more accurate and detailed estimates of the level of employment. BRES estimates refer to September of a given year. The private sector element of the Great Britain EJ series has been benchmarked to the equivalent from BRES for the periods September 2017 and September 2018 (the latest period available).
Notes for: Benchmarking Great Britain employee jobs to the Business Register Employment Survey
- Reporting units hold the mailing address to which survey questionnaires are sent. The questionnaire can cover the enterprise, or parts of the enterprise identified by lists of local units.
3. Seasonal adjustment
Seasonal adjustment is the process of identifying and removing the seasonal components from a series to leave the underlying trend and irregular components. The revised workforce jobs series have undergone a seasonal adjustment review, by our Time Series Analysis branch, causing revisions back to March 1982.
Nôl i'r tabl cynnwys4. Changes to estimates of Public Sector Employment
Workforce Jobs (WFJ) makes use of our official public sector employment (PSE) estimates for Great Britain. These inputs are not benchmarked as they are the definitive measure of PSE. The data received at September 2019 have led to revisions back to March 2018 in WFJ. Further information is available in the September 2019 PSE Statistical Bulletin.
Nôl i'r tabl cynnwys5. Late or revised data
The private sector employee jobs data comes from sample surveys. Each quarter revisions to data supplied or late data are incorporated for the previous quarter in line with the revisions policy. Revisions or late data for earlier periods (June 2018 onwards) have now been included.
Nôl i'r tabl cynnwys6. Government Supported Trainees
Revised estimates of Government Supported Trainees taken on from the devolved administrations caused revisions back to June 2018.
Nôl i'r tabl cynnwys7. Useful links
Estimates of sampling variability for Workforce Jobs’
Quality and Methodology information report for Workforce Jobs’
Revisions to workforce jobs – December 2018
Revisions to workforce jobs – December 2017
Revisions to workforce jobs – December 2016
Revisions to workforce jobs – June 2016
Improving the Coverage of the Standard Business Survey Population
Nôl i'r tabl cynnwys8. Annex A – Workforce Jobs sources
Component | Source | |
---|---|---|
Employee jobs | ||
Great Britain | Private sector | Short Term Employer Surveys (STES), benchmarked to the Business Register Employment Survey (BRES) |
Public sector | Public Sector Employment (PSE) from Quarterly Public Sector Employment Surveys (QPSES) and administrative sources from other government departments and devolved administrations | |
Agriculture | Labour Force Survey (LFS), benchmarked to BRES / DEFRA farms data | |
Construction | Short Term Employer Surveys (STES), benchmarked to the Business Register Employment Survey (BRES) | |
Air transport | Civil Aviation Authority (CAA), benchmarked to BRES | |
Northern Ireland | Northern Ireland Statistics & Research Agency (NISRA) | |
Self-employed jobs | Labour Force Survey (LFS) - main and second jobs by industry by region | |
Government Supported Trainees | ||
England | Labour Force Survey (LFS) | |
Wales | Welsh Government (WG), split by industry using LFS | |
Scotland | Scottish Government (SG), split by industry using LFS | |
Northern Ireland | Northern Ireland Statistics & Research Agency (NISRA) | |
Her Majesty’s Forces | Defence Analytical Services and Advice (DASA) |
Download this table Table 1: Components and sources of the workforce jobs estimates
.xls .csv9. Annex B – Revision tables, workforce jobs by component
Table 2: Revision tables, workforce jobs by component, UK
Nôl i'r tabl cynnwys