The "other" category within Economic Inactivity on table INAC01SA

FOI Ref: FOI/2021/3129

You asked

​I am interested in your dataset 'INAC01 SA: Economic inactivity by reason' and am writing to make an open government request for information under the Freedom of Information Act 2000.

Please could you supply me with any available information held underlying the data found in spreadsheet 'inac01saoct2021'? A breakdown of the 'other' category would be particularly helpful - [published here].

If any of this information is already in the public domain, please can you direct me to it?

We said

Thank you for your query regarding the "other" category within Economic Inactivity on table INAC01SA.

The analysis you refer to comes from the Labour Force Survey, a survey based on interviews with members of private households within the UK. The survey asks a range of questions to first establish whether the interviewee meets the international definition of employment. If not, then we look to establish whether they meet the definition of unemployment, requiring them to be seeking and available for work. If they are not, then we ask why they are not seeking work.

When establishing the reason why someone is not seeking work, they are given a range of options to choose from. Initially we allow them to identify all the categories relevant to them, before asking them to identify the main reason.

This analysis in INAC01 is based on the category that they identify as their main reason for not seeking work.

The options given are:

1. Waiting for the results of an application for a job/being assessed by a training agent

2. Student

3. Looking after the family/home

4. Temporarily sick or injured

5. Long-term sick or disabled

6. Believe(s) no jobs available

7. Not yet started looking

8. Do(does) not need employment

9. Retired from paid work

10. Any other reason

Details of this question, along with all the other questions used in the survey, can be found in Volume 2 of the Labour Force Survey User Guide.

https://www.ons.gov.uk/employmentandlabourmarket/peopleinwork/employmentandemployeetypes/methodologies/labourforcesurveyuserguidance

The "other" category on INAC01 includes all those who gave response 1, 7, 8, 10 or no response to this question. The majority of cases in this category fall under either "Any other reason" or have no response given.

We do not routinely produce an analysis for this category broken down by its components, but you can request an ad-hoc analysis to be produced from our Social Surveys team. Please note that we may charge for this ad-hoc analysis, depending on the amount of time taken to develop our analysis and undertake quality and disclosure control processes.