Non-UK born people coming to work in the UK may have different skills and qualifications to those educated and trained in the UK. These skills and qualifications will influence the job searches they undertake, and consequently the areas of the labour market where they work.
‘Public administration, education and health’, ‘Distribution, hotels and restaurants’, and ‘Business services’ are the main employment sectors for ‘UK born’ workers (employing 64 percent of the UK born workforce which equates to 16 million people) and ‘other non-UK born’ workers (employing 2.3 million people or 71 percent of the total workforce from these countries). Two of the three main sectors for A8 born workers are the same, but ‘Manufacturing’ replaces ‘Public administration, education and health’. The three sectors employ 62 percent (311,000) of the A8 born workforce.
It appears that workers from the A8 accession countries work in the industries requiring lower levels of skills and training. Clancy (2008) explains that the qualifications held by these individuals mostly tend to be classed as ‘other qualifications’. This suggests that these individuals either have lower value qualifications/fewer certified skills or that their qualifications are not easily comparable to the UK system. Given this situation it makes sense then that A8 workers are concentrated in ‘Manufacturing’ and ‘Distribution, hotels and restaurants’ as work in these industries can require fewer qualifications.
In terms of change on the year, there has been little movement, with a maximum change in the sector’s distribution of workers born in the UK and from other non-UK countries between 2007 and 2008 of one percent, which left rankings unaffected. However, in the case of A8 born workers there was a two percent increase in the number of A8 born workers employed in ‘Business services’. This meant this sector replaced ‘Construction’ as the third largest sector. The percentage of A8 born workers employed in construction remained constant at 12 percent.
Examining the effect of using nationality as opposed to country of birth the estimates produced give rankings that are entirely unaffected for 2008. The maximum percentage difference is two percent (in the Transport and communication category) for non-UK workers, which is greater when country of birth is used.
1. Non-UK excludes those who did not state their country of birth.
2. EU14: Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Holland, Italy, Luxembourg, Portugal, Republic of Ireland, Spain(inc Canary Islands), Sweden.
3. EUA8: Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Slovak Republic, Slovenia.
The working age employment rate was 72.9 per cent in the three months to May 2009, down 0.9 percentage points on the three months to February 2009 and down 2.0 percentage points from a year earlier. The working age employment rate for men was 76.4 per cent, down 1.1 percentage points on the previous quarter. The working age employment rate for women was 69.1 per cent, down 0.6 percentage points on the previous quarter.
The number of people in employment was 29.00 million in the three months to May 2009, down 269,000 from the three months to February 2009 and down 543,000 on a year earlier. The number of people in full-time employment was 21.47 million in the three months to May 2009, down 273,000 from the three months to February 2009. Of this total, 13.68 million were men and 7.79 million were women. The number of people in part-time employment was 7.53 million in the three months to May 2009, up 3,000 from the three months to February 2009. Of this total, 1.88 million were men and 5.65 million were women.
The number of people in public sector employment was 6.02 million in March 2009, up 15,000 from December 2008. The number of people in private sector employment was 23.09 million, down 286,000 from December 2008.
The number of UK born people in employment (not seasonally adjusted) was 25.28 million in the three months to March 2009, down 451,000 from the three months to March 2008. The number of non-UK born people in employment (not seasonally adjusted) was 3.81 million, up 129,000 from the three months to March 2008.
The working age employment rate for UK born people (not seasonally adjusted) was 74.1 per cent in the three months to March 2009, down 1.3 percentage points on the year. The corresponding employment rate for non-UK born people was 68.4 per cent, down 0.9 percentage points on the year.
There were 31.19 million workforce jobs in March 2009, down 108,000 over the quarter and down 455,000 on a year earlier. The sector showing the largest decrease in jobs over the quarter was manufacturing, which fell by 78,000.
There were 2.68 million employee jobs in manufacturing industries in the three months to May 2009, down 201,000 on a year earlier. Over the same period employee jobs in mining, energy and water supply industries were unchanged at 179,000.
Total hours worked per week were 918.8 million in the three months to May 2009, down 9.0 million from the three months to February 2009. Average weekly hours worked in the three months to May 2009 were 31.7, unchanged from the three months to February 2009.
The unemployment rate was 7.6 per cent in the three months to May 2009, up 0.9 percentage points from the three months to February 2009 and up 2.4 percentage points from a year earlier. The number of unemployed people was 2.38 million in the three months to May 2009, up 281,000 from the three months to February 2009 and up 753,000 from a year earlier.
The number of unemployed men was 1.46 million in the three months to May 2009, up 197,000 from the three months to February 2009. The number of unemployed women was 923,000 in the three months to May 2009, up 84,000 from the three months to February 2009.
The number of people unemployed for over 12 months was 528,000 in the three months to May 2009, up 46,000 from the three months to February 2009. Unemployment for 18 to 24 year olds was 726,000 in the three months to May 2009, up 95,000 from the three months to February 2009.
The claimant count in June 2009 was 1.56 million, up 23,800 on the previous month and up 716,800 on a year earlier. The claimant count rate was 4.8 per cent, up 0.1 percentage point from the previous month and up 2.2 percentage points from a year earlier.
The working age economic inactivity rate was 20.9 per cent in the three months to May 2009, up 0.1 percentage point on the three months to February 2009 but unchanged on a year earlier. The number of economically inactive people of working age rose by 64,000 over the quarter and by 46,000 over the year to reach 7.92 million in the three months to May 2009.
In the three months to May 2009 whole economy average earnings, excluding bonuses, rose by 2.6 per cent on a year earlier. This is down 0.1 percentage point from the three months to April 2009. Average earnings, including bonuses, rose by 2.3 per cent on a year earlier, up 1.4 percentage points from the previous period. Annual growth rates for the main industrial categories were:
Manufacturing
1.0 per cent excluding bonuses, down 0.1 percentage point;
0.8 per cent including bonuses, down 0.4 percentage points.
Services
2.9 per cent excluding bonuses, down 0.1 percentage point;
2.4 per cent including bonuses, up 1.6 percentage points.
Public sector
3.4 per cent excluding bonuses, down 0.1 percentage point;
3.5 per cent including bonuses, unchanged.
Private sector
2.4 per cent excluding bonuses, down 0.2 percentage points;
1.9 per cent including bonuses, up 1.5 percentage points.
Whole economy productivity was 4.2 per cent lower in the first quarter of 2009 compared with a year earlier. Whole economy unit wage costs rose by 3.6 per cent over the same period. Manufacturing productivity decreased by 5.9 per cent in the three months to May 2009 compared with a year earlier. Manufacturing unit wage costs increased by 7.1 per cent over the same period.
In May 2009, there were 5,000 working days lost from 13 stoppages. In the twelve months to May 2009, there were 559,000 working days lost from 125 stoppages.
There were 429,000 job vacancies in the three months to June 2009, down 35,000 from the three months to March 2009 and down 222,000 from a year earlier. There were 1.6 vacancies per 100 employee jobs, down 0.1 on the previous quarter and down 0.9 over the year.
In the three months to May 2009, 301,000 people had become redundant in the three months before the Labour Force Survey interviews, up 31,000 from the previous quarter and up 182,000 from a year earlier. The redundancy rate was 11.9 per 1,000 employees, up 1.3 from the three months to February 2009 and up 7.2 from a year earlier.
In November 2008 the number of people claiming key out of work benefits (not seasonally adjusted) was 4.53 million, up 219,500 from November 2007.
Source: Statistics
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