Employment (Hansard, 8 July 1997)

§ Mrs. Liddell

The information requested falls within the responsibility of the Chief Executive of the Office for National Statistics. I have asked him to arrange for a reply lo be given.

Letter from Tim Holt to Ms Joan Walley, dated 8 July 1997: The Chancellor of the Exchequer has asked me to reply as the Director of the Office for National Statistics to your recent question (6868) on what percentage of households have no one in full-time employment. Estimates available from the Labour Force Survey for non-pensioner households are shown in the attached table using the new Government Office Region (GOR) geography. This information is not available below county level. It is widely accepted that analyses of households with no one in employment or, in this case, no one in full-time employment, should exclude pensioner households. This area of analysis is relatively new for the LFS and the definition of non-pensioner or working age households is not yet firmly established. The table provided is based on the same definition of non-pensioner household as previous responses to parliamentary questions to this topic. The ONS has been assessing the various alternative definitions and expects to publish its recommendations in the September issue of Labour Market Trends.

Non-pensioner households with no one in full-time employment, not seasonally adjusted, winter 1996–97
Region	Per cent.
United Kingdom	24.8
Great Britain	24.8
England	24.3
North-east	31.2
North-west and Merseyside	27.8
North-west	26.5
Merseyside	33.3
Yorkshire and Humberside	26.2
East Midlands	21.7
West Midlands	23.9
Eastern	20.3
London	29.2
South-east	18.0
South-west	22.3

406W

Non-pensioner households with no one in full-time employment, not seasonally adjusted, winter 1996–97
Region	Per cent.
Wales	29.1
Scotland	27.1
Northern Ireland	27.3

Source:

Labour Force Survey, Office for National Statistics.