Local Area Labour Markets in Scotland - Statistics from the Annual Population Survey 2012

About this publication

The Annual Population Survey (APS) combines results from the Labour Force Survey (LFS) and the English, Welsh and Scottish Labour Force Survey boosts. The boosts increase the sample size which means the APS can provide more robust labour market estimates for local areas compared to the main LFS. The Scottish Government funds the boost to the LFS sample in Scotland, taking the sample size from approximately 5,800 households each year to 20,000 households. The APS is the primary source for information on local labour markets providing headline estimates of employment, unemployment and economic activity.

This is the tenth publication of the series. It aims to provide reliable and up-to-date headline information for local area labour markets and covers employment, underemployment, inactivity and youth participation in the labour market within Scotland and its local authorities. Results are provided for the calendar years (January to December) 2004 to 2012, based on the data released by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) on 21 March 2013.

The publication is split into two main chapters.

The first chapter examines changes at national and local authority area level for:

• employment across various sub-groups of the population
• different types of work people are employed in and which sub-groups may be driving changes in these
• different industry sectors as well as public/private and the third sectors
• different occupations and occupational skill distributions

The second chapter examines changes at national and local authority area level for those who are not in employment, looking at:

• changes in unemployment across various sub-groups
• changes in economic inactivity across various sub-groups
• reasons for inactivity and willingness to work
• those who have never worked

Estimates for age, gender and disability equalities groups are included in the main publication. Disaggregations for other equalities groups (ethnicity and religion) tend to be unreliable at local authority area level due to the small sample sizes of many of the sub-groups, and are therefore only included in the accompanying web-tables at national or regional level.

Summary

People in work

• Scotland Performs Cohesion Target - Between 2011 and 2012, the gap in employment rates between the three local authorities with the highest employment rates and the three local authorities with the lowest employment rates increased by 2.8 percentage points from 16.3 to 19.1 percentage points.
• There is considerable variation in employment rates across Scotland's local authorities. In 2012, employment rates varied from 59.7% in Glasgow City to 81.3% in the Orkney Islands. This compares to an employment rate of 70.6% in Scotland based on Jan-Dec 2012 APS data.
• Just over half of local authorities (17 in total) saw an increase in their employment rates over the year, while all but two local authorities saw reductions between 2008 (start of the recession) and 2012, reflecting the continuing challenging economic circumstances.
• Glasgow saw the largest decrease in employment rate across Scotland's local authorities, down 4.1 percentage points to 59.7%, while its employment level decreased by 15,500. This was driven by reductions in the levels of both public and private sector employment in Glasgow which decreased by 8,900 and 9,800 respectively. Over the year, Glasgow has seen a large shift out of employment into inactivity (with the level of inactive students aged 16-24 up around 11,000 over this period).
• Between 2011 and 2012 the male employment rate decreased from 75.1% to 74.6%, with decreases in the rate being seen in 15 local authority areas, with the remaining 17 local authorities seeing increases. Over the same period, the female employment rate increased slightly from 66.5% to 66.8%, with increases in the rate being seen in 20 local authority areas, with 11 of the remaining local authorities seeing decreases and one seeing no change.
• The youth employment rate (16-24 year olds) in Scotland decreased by 1.4 percentage point over the year, from 54.6% in 2011 to 53.2% in 2012. A total of 16 local authorities (including Edinburgh and Glasgow) saw a decrease in their youth employment rate, whilst over the same period the remaining 16 saw increases.
• In 2012 73.2% of people in employment were working full time, compared to 73.6% in 2011 and 76.2% in 2008. Over the year the percentage of people in full time work has decreased in 17 local authority areas and since 2008 has decreased in 28 local authorities.
• In 2012 there were 243,300 workers who were underemployed (i.e. willing to work more hours), an increase of 2,600 over the year and 68,900 since the start of the recession in 2008. The underemployment rate (those underemployed as a proportion of all aged 16+ in employment) in 2012 was 10.0%, up 0.1 percentage point over the year and 3.0 percentage points since 2008. Underemployment levels are highest amongst part-time female and full-time male workers.

People not in work

• There were 213,100 people aged 16 or over who were unemployed in Scotland, a decrease 3,100 over the year, but an increase of 82,700 since the start of the recession in 2008.
• The youth unemployment rate (16-24) in Scotland was 20.7%, 0.2 percentage points lower than the rate in the UK. The rate in Scotland has increased by 7.1 percentage points since 2008, higher than the increase of 5.9 percentage points in the UK over the same period.
• Over the year, the unemployment rate (model based) decreased in 19 local authority areas in Scotland, with 12 of the remaining authorities seeing increases in their unemployment rate, and one seeing no change.
• In 2012 33,000 (13.3%) of 16-19 year olds were not in education, employment or training. The level of NEET had increased by 1,000 (0.9 percentage point) since 2011.
• Between 2011 and 2012, the economic inactivity rate decreased in half (16) of Scotland's local authorities, while the remaining 16 authorities saw increases in their rate. The largest decreases were seen in Eilean Siar, Renfrewshire and South Ayrshire while largest increases were seen in Glasgow City, Dundee City and Highland.
• In 2012, there were 104,500 people in Scotland over the age of 16 (and not in full-time education) who had never worked, down 8.9% on the level in 2011 (114,700), down 2.5% on 2008 level (107,200), and up 1.7% on the level in 2004 (102,800).