§ Mr Wigleyasked the Secretary of State for Employment what definition of employee activity is used by his Department in compiling statistics.
§ Mr. Peter MorrisonThe Department of Employment does not use the concept of an "employee activity rate". Information is normally given in the form of "economic activity rates". These are defined as the percentage of the population aged 16 and over, or any sub-group of this population, who are in the labour force, that is working or looking for work. Those working comprise the employed, excluding full-time students with part-time or vacation jobs, the self-employed and Her Majesty's Forces; those who are seeking work comprise both the registered and unregistered unemployed and those who are prevented from seeking work because of temporary sickness.
Information on those serving in Her Majesty's Forces is only available for Great Britain. Civilian economic activity rates only are available for Wales, Scotland and England separately.
Detailed definitions of the labour force and of economic activity rates are given in the "Guide to Official Statistics, 1980" pages 151–2.