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

Section 2: People not in work

This section examines those who are not in employment. There are two broad categories that those not in employment are covered by; unemployment and economic inactivity.

Figure 12: Composition of those aged 16+ who were not in work, Scotland, 2012

Source: Annual Population Survey, Jan-Dec, ONS

Figure 12 shows the make-up of those individuals aged 16+ who were not in work in 2012. Those who were over 65 and retired or inactive for other reasons made up 51% of the total inactive population in Scotland. If we exclude the inactive population aged 65 and over, then the largest category was those who were either short or long term sick (24%), followed by those who were students (18%). Just under 16% are looking after family or home, while 6% were inactive for other reasons including those being discouraged from looking for work (less than 1%). Females aged below 65 who were retired make up 9% of all aged 16-64 who were inactive, more than double the proportion of males under 65 who were retired. This is primarily a consequence of the age group used to measure the headline inactive cohort (16-64) which currently covers a large number of females who have reached their state pension age. As the state pension age for females is being increased through time to match the male state pension age, the size of this cohort will decrease over time.