Updates to SIMD Income and Employment Domains

Other sources of information

13. These updates are published primarily to allow comparison of the SIMD income and employment domains over time and they do not represent the most up to date information available.

14. The data used in these updates relates to 2009 and 2010. However most of the individual benefits that make up the employment and income domains are available more frequently, either every month (for claimant count data) or every quarter (for other benefit types). The most up to date data can be obtained through

• the Scottish Government's Scottish Neighbourhood Statistics website ( www.sns.gov.uk),
• the Department for Work and Pensions' tabulation tool ( http://statistics.dwp.gov.uk/asd/index.php?page=tabtool)
• the Office for National Statistics' NOMIS website ( www.nomisweb.co.uk).

15. Note that the claimant count is not the official measure of unemployment. Unemployment is measured according to an internationally agreed definition, using data from the Labour Force Survey/Annual Population Survey. Some people who are unemployed are ineligible or do not claim Jobseekers Allowance. Therefore, in the UK, the claimant count is lower than the unemployment level.

16. Secondary analysis of the latest labour market data for Scotland and the UK is available on the Scottish Government's Labour Market Statistics website ( http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Statistics/Browse/Labour-Market/AnalyticalPapers/).