ONS Local Labour Market Statistics Published

Differences in unemployment rates within regions are greater than differences between regions, according to a report published today by the Office for National Statistics.

The report, Local Area Labour Markets Statistical Indicators - July 2006, found that the gap between the highest and lowest unemployment rates in a region’s local authorities in 2005 was widest in London and the North West. The gap in both regions was 7.2 percentage points. The gap between top and bottom performing Scottish unitary authorities was 4.7 per cent (Aberdeenshire 3.3 per cent and Glasgow City 8.0 per cent).

The report, which will now be published quarterly, includes sections on economic inactivity, ethnicity and the labour market, the claimant count, and earnings by place of residence. It brings together data from a number of sources – the Labour Force Survey and the Annual Population Survey, the Annual Business Inquiry, the Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings, and administrative data on benefits from the Department for Work and Pensions – to give an overall picture of the labour market looking at both labour supply and demand in each area.

These unemployment data for local authorities are from a new source, and are being published for the first time as National Statistics. ONS has developed a statistical model which takes unemployment estimates from the Annual Population Survey together with the claimant count to determine estimates which are acceptably precise for publication for all local authority areas.