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Comparison of statistics on jobs: September 2007
Presents latest comparisons from the Labour Force Survey and Workforce Jobs statistics, reconciling the estimates from both sources.
Author: Andrew Machin
Economic & Labour Market Review, vol 2, no 3, pp 18-23. ISSN: 1751-8334
According to the Labour Force Survey (LFS) there were 30.4 million jobs in the UK in July-September 2007. The LFS estimate is 1.195 million (3.9 per cent) lower than the corresponding estimate from the Workforce Jobs (WFJ) series. The National Statistics Quality Review of Employment and Jobs Statistics identified about 30 reasons why the LFS and WFJ figures differ from each other. Some of these can be quantified using information from the LFS and other sources. Once these measurable factors causing differences between the two sources have been taken into account, the adjusted LFS estimate of total UK jobs is 65,000 (0.2 per cent) lower than the adjusted WFJ figure.
The article compares estimates of jobs from the LFS (a household survey) with corresponding estimates from the WFJ series (which is mainly compiled from business surveys). The first part of the article compares LFS and WFJ estimates of the total number of jobs in the UK for September 2007. The second part explains how self-employment is now reported in the LFS estimates of jobs and describes some of the reasons why the LFS can over-report self-employment jobs. The final part of the article explains the reasons why temporary foreign workers have been under-represented in the LFS, and describes the methodology to compensate for this. It also outlines work that ONS is undertaking to improve coherence between LFS and WFJ statistics on jobs.
This is one of a series of articles designed to enhance users' understanding of employment and jobs statistics and raise awareness of developments aimed at improving coherence between sources.
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