Indicator of the Month - Economic Activity Rate

In order to calculate the economic activity rate of an area, we first need to ascertain the size of the economically active population resident there. We do this by taking all residents aged 16 or over who are currently in work, combined with those who are not in work but are classified as unemployed on the International Labour Organization (ILO) definition. This refers to people who are currently unemployed but who are available to start work and who are actively seeking work. To obtain the economic activity rate, we then divide the number of economically active residents (aged 16 or over) by the total number of residents aged 16 or over in the area.

You can find out the economic activity rate for unitary authority administrative areas in Scotland by using the Key Indicators facility on the Futureskills Scotland website. The information used to produce this indicator is collected by the Office for National Statistics(ONS) and is provided by NOMIS, a web-based database of labour market statistics run by the University of Durham on behalf of the Office for National Statistics. Launched in 1981, Nomis houses an extensive range of government statistical information on the UK labour market including Employment, Unemployment, Earnings, Labour Force Survey and Job Centre Plus vacancies.