People in Scotland who have never been in employment: FOI release

Information requested

The current number of people in Scotland who have never been in any form of employment including self-employment. Please break down this information by all adults, adults aged between 16-64 and also how many of these people in each category are currently in some form of education.

Response

1. In January to December 2023, the number of people aged 16 to 64 who have never had a paid job was estimated to be 270,300.

2. In 2023, the number of people aged 16 to 64 who have never had a paid job and are in full-time education was estimated to be 151,200 while the number who have never had a paid job and are not in full-time education was estimated to be 119,100.

3. The information is sourced from the ONS Annual Population Survey, an Accredited Official Statistics source for Labour Market Statistics. Survey respondents are identified as having never worked if during their interview they have responded to say that they had never had paid work, apart from casual or holiday work. Respondents are instructed to include self-employment or work on a government scheme as paid work.

4. We ask that you note the estimates provided only show the number of people aged 16 to 64. In addition to this, we have provided estimates for those who have never worked by full-time education status. This is to align with estimates produced by the Office for National Statistics; the owners of the data.

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The Scottish Government is committed to publishing all information released in response to Freedom of Information requests. View all FOI responses at http://www.gov.scot/foi-responses.