§ Mr. Paul MarsdenTo ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, pursuant to his answer of 24 June 1999,Official Report, column 464, how many people are currently employed in the Shrewsbury and Atcham local authority district. [89048]
§ Ms HewittThe information requested falls within the responsibility of the Director of the Office for National Statistics. I have asked him to reply.
Letter from John Kidgell to Mr. Paul Marsden, dated 1 July 1999:
In the absence of the Director of the Office for National Statistics (ONS), I have been asked to reply to your recent parliamentary question on the number of people employed in the Shrewsbury and Atcham local authority district.There are two sources of employment information at local authority district level.The latest available estimate is from the 1997/98 Labour Force Survey (LFS) Local Authority Database (LADB), covering the period March 97—February 98. This shows that 47,000 people 259W living in Shrewsbury and Atcham were in employment. The LFS is a sample survey covering around 96,000 households annually, or some 184,000 adults.Your recent question on employment was answered on 24 June 1999, Official Report, column 464. It used the Annual Employment Survey (AES), from which the number of Employee Jobs at September 1997 was given in the reply. The AES sample is drawn from the Inter-Departmental Business Register (IDBR). In 1997 it comprised 105,000 enterprises, covering half a million workplaces and 15.5 million employees (out of a total population of roughly 23 million employee jobs).Although the AES has a larger sample size, the LFS gives more complete coverage. The LFS includes employees, self-employed, unpaid family workers and those on government employment training programmes.