ONS Publish Labour Market Trends June 2006

Labour Market Trends, June 2006, was published today. As well as the most up to date data available, this month's edition contains a number of interesting articles, covering:

News

• Jobs Densities for Local Areas - On Friday 28 April jobs density estimates for 2004 were published, along with revisions to 2003 estimates. Jobs density figures show the number of jobs there are for each working-age resident in an area. Those areas with a higher density are ‘importers’ of labour, while those with lower densities tend to be areas where people live rather than work. The figures were released on both the National Statistics and NOMIS websites and are produced for several types of local area, including local authorities and Parliamentary constituencies. They will also be included in the labour market statistics First Releases for each region and country of the UK.
• Changes to Jobcentre Plus Vacancy Statistics - From April 2006 Jobcentre Plus introduced changes to its vacancy handling procedures. These have implications for the vacancy statistics published as National Statistics by Department for Work and Pensions and disseminated via NOMIS. From April 2006 Jobcentre Plus performance is being assessed differently and there is consequently no longer an operational need to follow up vacancies. Vacancies notified to Jobcentre Plus now have a closure date agreed with the employer. Vacancies are automatically withdrawn on the closure date unless the employer advises that a later closure date is required. Impact on statistics Evidence from pilots of the new procedures suggests that inflows of newly-notified vacancies may fall by some 5 per cent as a result of a reduction in speculative placings. Auto-closure of vacancies will, over time, also lead to a reduction in the recorded stocks of unfilled vacancies, but in due course these are expected to reflect more accurately job opportunities available via Jobcentre Plus. Filled vacancies will no longer be recorded on Jobcentre Plus computer systems. Consequently, for datasets from April 2006 onwards, only statistics on total vacancy outflows will now be published on NOMIS.
• Employment Rights at Work: Survey of Employees 2005 - A new survey, carried out by the Institute for Employment Studies (IES) on behalf of the Department for Trade and Industry, found that almost two thirds of respondents felt they were either well informed or very well informed about their employment rights. The 2005 survey aimed to assess employees’ general level of awareness of the scope of their employment rights and knowledge of specific employment issues, such as the National Minimum Wage, unfair dismissal and discrimination. Although the survey found that the vast majority of employees were aware of their rights with regard to racial, sexual and disability discrimination, the National Minimum Wage and unfair dismissal laws, it found that less than half were aware of their rights for additional maternity leave and time off for dependants in an emergency, and just 27 per cent were aware of their entitlements for parental leave. The survey goes on to look at a range of other aspects, including knowledge of specific employment rights and the problems experienced by employees and how they dealt with them.
• Employers Value New EU Migrant Workers - A recent study published the Joseph Rowntree Foundation finds that 75 per cent of employers felt that European enlargement had been good for business, with migrant workers doing jobs under employment conditions that UK nationals are not prepared to accept. Employers attributed difficulties recruiting UK workers to the physical demands, long or anti-social hours or low pay or status of jobs and were concerned about retention. Employers valued highly-qualified migrants for low-waged and low skilled work and preferred benefiting from what they see as the ‘work ethic’ and reliability of migrant workers. Migrant workers themselves traded off low-skilled work and poor conditions for better pay than in their home countries. The study looks at the experiences of workers from four of the EU accession countries and two further eastern European countries in sectors where migrants are important in the UK labour force, namely hospitality, agriculture, construction and au pairs. The interviews with over 600 migrants and 500 employers were conducted both before and after the enlargement of the EU on 1 May 2005.

National Statistics Features

Features this month include:

• An analysis of labour disputes in 2005 and their impact on the UK economy
• The impact of the switch from seasonal to calendar quarters in the Labour Force Survey, and
• A framework for labour cost statistics