Scotland's People Annual report: Results from 2009 Scottish Household Survey

5 Economic Activity

Introduction and Context

The Scottish Government is committed to improving the economic situation and opportunity of people in Scotland, through sustainable economic growth. ³⁶ The Scottish Household Survey ( SHS) monitors the current economic situation and the characteristics of individuals and households in different economic activity categories. The information gathered in the SHS about the current economic situation of members of the household is reported by the respondent to the 'household' part of the interview and may not conform to official definitions of employment and unemployment. The SHS is not directly comparable with the Labour Force Survey ( LFS) - the official source of employment data in the UK. The SHS has questions on these topics only for selecting the data of particular groups, such as working adults ³⁷ or those who are permanently retired from work, for further analysis or for use as background variables when analysing other topics.

In this chapter, the current economic situation of adult men and women is considered. This is followed by an examination of the economic situation of working households, starting with the number of working adults within households. In households with adults of working age, the current economic situation is further analysed by gender and whether an adult has a long standing illness, health problem or disability. The socio-economic classification of working households is also examined. Finally, this chapter explores the current economic situation of women of working age, specifically investigating the impact of women's marital status and whether there are children present in the household.

Current economic Situation

Figure 5.1 shows the current economic situation of adults by gender. Fifty nine per cent of men and 50% of women are currently in work. In addition, around one in seven (14%) men and one in ten (10%) women are looking for work or are in some form of education or training preparatory to work. Virtually all of the remainder are unavailable for work (26% of men and 40% of women) either currently, due to them looking after the home or family, or because they are permanently sick or disabled, or permanently retired.

Just under half (46%) of all men and 28% of women are in full-time employment. Women are more often in part-time employment than men (18% compared with 4%). In contrast self-employment is more common among men than women (9% and 4% respectively).

Figure 5.1: Current economic situation of adults

2009 data, Adult males (base: 5,442)

Percentage of adults

2009 data, Adult females (base: 7,101)

Percentage of adults

Although there are relatively high levels of both men and women in work, there remains some evidence of the traditional model of caring for home and family being a female role. Ten per cent of women report that they are looking after home and family compared with 1% of men.

One-in-five men (20%) and just over a quarter (26%) of women are permanently retired from work. The higher proportion of retired women arises as a consequence of their longer life expectancy and the lower retirement age for women.

Working Households

In this section the focus is on working households. Firstly, the number of adults in paid employment ³⁸ in households is examined. Subsequently, adults of working age are investigated in more detail.

Adults in paid employment

As Figure 5.2 shows, in Scotland as a whole, six in ten households include at least one adult in paid employment. This is made up of a little under a third of households (32%) containing two or more adults in paid employment and 28% having one. The remaining households (39%) contain no adults in paid employment.

The number of working adults in a household varies according to the deprivation levels of the area in which they are situated. ³⁹ A slight majority of households in the 15% most deprived of areas include no adults in paid employment (51%). Conversely the majority of households in the rest of Scotland contain one or more working adult (63% compared with 37% having no adults in paid employment).

Figure 5.2: Number of adults in paid employment by Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation

2009 data, Households (base: 15% most deprived 2,011; Rest of Scotland 12,165; Scotland 14,176)

Current economic situation of working age adults

Not all households contain adults of working age, ⁴⁰ so it is useful to look at the current economic situation of men and women in this category. As Table 5.1 shows, men of working age are employed predominantly either full-time (55%) or are self-employed (10%). Taken together with the relatively small proportion of working age men employed part-time, this means that around three-quarters (69%) of adult men of working age are currently engaged in some form of paid work. Six per cent is permanently sick or disabled.

Women's participation in the labour market has increased over recent years. Two-thirds (66%) of working age women are in some form of paid work. Like men, the majority of women in paid work are in full-time employment (39%). Unlike men, the next most common option among women is part-time employment; 23% of working age women work part-time. Thirteen per cent of working age women do not participate in the labour market because they are looking after their home or family.

It is relatively uncommon for men or women of working age to be permanently retired from work (5% males; 1% females). This will under-represent all those who have taken early retirement as some who do so will subsequently take up other employment opportunities.

Table 5.1: Current economic situation of adults of working age by gender

Column percentages, 2009 data

Adults	Male	Female
Self-employed	9	4
Full-time employment	46	28
Part-time employment	4	18
Looking after home/family	1	10
Permanently retired from work	20	26
Unemployed and seeking work	7	3
Education/training	7	7
Permanently sick or disabled	5	4
Other	1	1
All	100	100

There are a number of differences in current economic situation when looking at the highest level of qualification people have achieved. Those who have attained degree level or professional qualifications have the highest level of full-time employment (59%). Of those who have no qualifications, just under a third (32%) are in full-time employment. Similarly, almost one-fifth (18%) of those with no qualifications are permanently sick or disabled, higher than any other groups.

Table 5.2: Current economic situation of adults of working age by highest level of qualification

Column percentages, 2009 data

Adults of working age (Male 16-64 years, Female 16-59 years)	'O' Grade, Standard grade or equiv	Higher, A level or equivalent	HNC/ HND or equivalent	Degree, Professional qualification	Other qualification	No qualifications	Qualifications not known	All
Self-employed	6	8	8	9	10	5	*	7
Full-time employment	40	47	58	59	39	32	*	47
Part-time employment	15	12	11	12	16	13	*	13
Looking after home/family	9	4	6	4	8	10	*	7
Permanently retired from work	2	2	2	4	8	5	*	3
Unemployed and seeking work	11	5	5	3	6	10	*	7
At school	7	5	-	-	-	1	*	3
Higher/further education	4	15	6	5	1	1	*	6
Government work/training scheme	0	0	-	-	-	1	*	0
Permanently sick or disabled	5	2	3	1	9	18	*	5
Unable to work due to short term ill-health	1	1	1	0	2	2	*	1
Other	0	1	0	0	1	1	*	0
All	100	100	100	100	100	100	*	100
Base	1,927	1,383	1,004	2,456	225	1,490	37	8,522

Still focusing on adults of working age, it is possible to compare the differing economic situations of the adults who have a long-standing illness, health problem or disability that limits their daily activities, with those of the rest of the adult population (Table 5.3). Under one-third (31%) of adults of working age with a long-standing illness, health problem or disability are permanently sick or disabled. Additionally, 5% are currently unable to work due to short term illness or injury, compared with less than 1% of those in the 'other' economic situation group. The biggest difference between those who do or do not have any long-standing limiting illness, health problem or disability lies in full-time employment rates (23% who do as against 52% who do not).

Table 5.3: Current economic situation of adults of working age by long-standing limiting illness, health problem or disability

Column percentages, 2009 data

Adults of working age (Male 16-64 years, Female 16-59 years)	Yes	No	All
Self-employed	5	8	7
Full-time employment	23	52	47
Part-time employment	9	14	13
Looking after home/family	7	6	7
Permanently retired from work	8	2	3
Unemployed and seeking work	6	7	7
At school	2	3	3
Higher/further education	4	7	6
Government work/training scheme	0	0	0
Permanently sick or disabled	31	0	5
Unable to work due to short term ill-health	5	0	1
Other	1	0	0
All	100	100	100
Base	1,662	6,834	8,496

Adjusting the figures to remove those who say they are permanently sick or disabled, ⁴¹ enables an examination of whether the economic situation of those who remain differs from the rest of the working age population. The key differences in current economic situation between those who have a long-standing illness, health problem or disability (excluding the permanently sick and disabled) and those who do not are:

• Working-full time (33% of those with a long-standing illness, health problem or disability compared with 52% of the rest of the working age population)
• Looking after the home/family (10% compared with 6%)
• Permanently retired from work (12% compared with 2%)
• Unable to work because of short-term illness or injury (7% compared with less than 1%)

So, adults of working age with a long-standing illness, health problem or disability, who are not permanently sick or disabled, are less often in full-time employment and more often looking after the home or family, permanently retired from work or unable to work because of short-term illness or injury than are other adults of working age.

Socio-economic classification of working age adults

The SHS collects information about the current or past employment of the Highest Income Householder and the random adult (if different). The information collected is used to classify households and adults using the National Statistics Socio-Economic and Standard Industrial Classifications ( NS- SEC; NS- SIC). ⁴² Table 5.4 focuses on working adults of working age, comparing the socio-economic classification of those who are self-employed, employed full-time and in part-time employment.

Unsurprisingly, just over two-thirds (67%) of self-employed people are classified as 'small employers and own account workers' while most of the remainder (25% of self-employed working adults of working age) are in professional occupations.

Managerial and professional occupations are a little more common among full-time working adults of working age than are lower supervisory and technical, semi-routine and routine occupations; almost half (46%) of such adults are employed in the former, while four in ten (40%) are employed in the latter roles.

There is a higher concentration of part-time employment in semi-routine occupations (30% of part-time employees compared with 13% of full-time employees and 2% of self-employed adults of working age). After semi-routine the most common occupations for those in part-time employment are lower managerial and professional and intermediate (22% and 18% respectively).

Table 5.4: Socio-Economic Classification ( NS- SEC) by economic situation

Column percentages, 2009 data

Working adults of working age (Male 16-64 years, Female 16-59 years)	Self- employed	Full-time employment	Part-time employment	All
Higher managerial and professional occupations	13	16	5	13
Lower managerial and professional occupations	12	30	22	27
Intermediate occupations	2	12	18	12
Small employers and own account workers	67	2	2	9
Lower supervisory and technical occupations	2	16	7	13
Semi-routine occupations	2	13	30	15
Routine occupations	2	11	14	11
All ( NS- SEC known)	100	100	100	100
Base	574	3,642	1,035	5,251

Table 5.5 considers how NS- SEC varies between working age women and men. A higher proportion of women than men work in lower managerial and professional, intermediate and in semi-routine occupations. In contrast, men are more often employed in lower supervisory and technical and in routine occupations and, reflecting the higher levels of self-employment among men, to be small employers or own account workers.

Table 5.5: Socio-Economic Classification ( NS- SEC) by gender

Column percentages, 2009 data

Working adults of working age (Male 16-64 years, Female 16-59 years)	Male	Female	All
Higher managerial and professional occupations	16	10	13
Lower managerial and professional occupations	22	32	27
Intermediate occupations	8	18	12
Small employers and own account workers	12	5	9
Lower supervisory and technical occupations	17	8	13
Semi-routine occupations	11	20	15
Routine occupations	13	8	11
All ( NS- SEC known)	100	100	100
Base	2,603	2,648	5,251

Women of working age

The final section of this chapter focuses on the current economic situation of women of working age, examining the difference in situation firstly according to whether there are children in the household and then by their current marital status.

As Table 5.1 demonstrated previously, the majority of women of working age are in some form of employment. Table 5.6 shows that this remains the case regardless of whether there are children in the household or not; 63% of working age women with children are employed or self-employed, rising to 68% of working age women without children in the household.

The main differences between the two groups of working age women are that a higher proportion of those with no children in the household are employed full-time (48% compared with 27% of those where children are present) while, unsurprisingly, a higher proportion who have children in the household are looking after the home or family (22% compared with 5% of those with no children present).

Table 5.6: Current economic situation of women by presence of children in the household

Column percentages, 2009 data

Female adults of working age (16-59 years)	Yes, have children	No children	All
Self-employed	5	4	4
Full-time employment	27	48	39
Part-time employment	31	16	23
Looking after home/family	22	5	13
Permanently retired from work	0	2	1
Unemployed and seeking work	4	5	5
At school	3	3	3
Higher/further education	5	8	7
Government work/training scheme	0	0	0
Permanently sick or disabled	2	7	5
Unable to work due to short term ill-health	1	1	1
Other	1	1	1
All	100	100	100
Base	1,939	2,471	4,410

The different economic situation of women of working age according to their current marital status broadly reflects the links between age and marital status ( Chapter 2) and between economic situation and presence of children previously discussed (Table 5.6).

Table 5.7 shows, for example, a higher proportion of married working age women are in part-time employment (29%) or looking after the home and family (16%) than any other group. Just under one-in-seven (15%) of women of working age who are single are in higher or further education, reflecting the relatively high proportion of younger people (16-24) who are in this category. A slightly higher proportion of women who are divorced or separated are in full-time employment (42%) as compared to the other martial status groups.

Table 5.7: Current economic situation of women by marital status

Column percentages, 2009 data

Female adults of working age (16-59 years)	Single, never married/civil partnership	Married / civil partnership	Divorced/ Separated	Widowed/ Bereaved civil partner	All
Self-employed	2	6	6	5	4
Full-time employment	38	39	42	30	39
Part-time employment	15	29	16	29	23
Looking after home/family	9	16	12	6	13
Permanently retired from work	0	2	2	9	1
Unemployed and seeking work	7	2	6	3	5
At school	7	0	-	-	3
Higher/further education	15	2	2	1	7
Government work/training scheme	0	-	-	-	0
Permanently sick or disabled	4	3	12	11	5
Unable to work due to short term ill-health	1	1	2	4	1
Other	1	0	1	1	1
All	100	100	100	100	100
Base	1,690	1,859	763	98	4,410

Those who have previously been in partnerships of some kind who are widowed or bereaved, or are separated, divorced or whose partnership has been annulled, are more likely to be permanently sick or disabled than any other women of working age.