Labour Market Statistics for Scotland by Disability: January to December 2022

About this publication

This publication contains Scottish labour market statistics for January to December 2022. Estimates presented are by disability and from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) Annual Population Survey (APS).

The APS combines the Labour Force Survey (LFS) and the English, Welsh, and Scottish LFS boosts. This provides a larger annual sample of households in Scotland and the United Kingdom. Compared to the quarterly LFS, the annual APS provides more statistically robust estimates. This is especially true for local areas and smaller populations such as breakdowns by disability. The APS is the National Statistics source for labour market indicators by region and smaller groups of the population.

Important Note

Since August 2021, APS responses for periods April 2019 to March 2020 and onwards use weights derived from new populations. The new populations incorporate growth rates from HM Revenue and Customs Real Time Information (RTI). This was to allow for the different trends during the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. The new weightings gave improved estimates for both rates and levels.

In July and September 2022, APS responses for the periods outlined above were reweighted again using updated HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) Real Time Information (RTI) data. The ONS have written an article which provides further information on the reweighting exercise.

The UK and Scottish Governments introduced policies in relation to the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. Some of these policies were still in place during the periods of the 2021 and 2022 APS estimates. The impact of these policies are likely to be seen in the estimates for these years.

Between April 2020 and the end of September 2021 some employees were furloughed. These employees were classed as employed, but temporarily away from work. This definition is consistent with labour market definitions as outlined by ONS.

The population totals used for the 2021 and 2022 APS estimates use projected growth rates from real-time information (RTI) data for UK, EU and non-EU populations based on 2021 patterns. The total population used for the APS therefore does not take into account any changes in migration, birth rates, death rates, and so on since June 2021, so levels estimates may be under or over estimating the true values and should be used with caution. Estimates of rates will, however, be robust.

ONS carried out the original collection and analysis of the Annual Population Survey data. ONS bear no responsibility for their further analysis and interpretation.

Labour Market Transformation

ONS are transforming the LFS. They have published a Labour market transformation article providing an update on the transformation of labour market statistics.

ONS also welcome any feedback on this latest update and their plans. Please email them at labour.market.transformation@ons.gov.uk to tell them what you think.

Disability Definition

Disability questions have been asked since the beginning of the APS in 2004 but have undergone several changes since 2010. This has meant comparisons over time have become difficult to interpret. There are two sets of changes in particular that have resulted in discontinuities in time series:

• in January 2010, a rewording of the introduction to the section of the survey covering disabilities
• in April 2013, changes to the wording of the disability questions in order to bring the APS more in line with the definitions and questions used in other household surveys in the UK

Consequently the estimates from 2010 onwards are not directly comparable with those for previous years. Also, the estimates from April 2013 are not comparable with those for either the 2010-2012 or the pre-2010 periods.

The discontinuity in 2010 resulted from some differences in the reporting behaviour of respondents because of a change in the wording of the questionnaire. The discontinuity in April 2013 resulted from a further change in the reporting behaviour of survey respondents following another change to the wording of the questionnaire.

These changes brought the APS in line with the Government Statistical Service (GSS) Harmonised Standards for questions on disability and also enabled the APS estimates to be consistent with the definitions used in the 2010 Equality Act. The 2010 Equality Act replaced the Disability Discrimination Act (DDA) 1995, for Great Britain but not for Northern Ireland. The DDA was the basis for APS estimates from 2004 to the beginning of 2013.

This harmonised definition is based on self-reported health condition. A condition will have lasted, or be expected to last, 12 months or more and reduce a person’s ability to carry out normal day-to-day activities.

As a result of the discontinuity in the series we have chosen only include estimates from 2014 onwards within this publication.

Estimates are for 16 to 64 year-olds because the disability variable is not robust for those aged over 64 years. Disability status is only collected for people aged 65 years or older at their first contact resulting in less data for this population. The weighting used does not account for the reduced sample size for this age group, making the data not fully representative of the population.

This means the working status of those aged 65 years or over is not captured. The survey’s sampling method excludes communal establishments. Therefore, estimates are not representative of disabled people who reside in medical or residential care establishments.

The terminology used in this publication aligns with Scottish Government guidance.