§ Mr. Norman Atkinsonasked the Secretary of State for Employment if he will consider using weighted statistics according to the exact size of the sample taken when estimating average earnings in place of crude arithmetic averages based on block standard industrial classification grouping.
§ Mr. Alan ClarkThis Department's statistics of average earnings are not crude arithmetic averages based on block standard industrial groupings. The results of the new earnings survey are based on averages relating to the individuals in the representative 1 per cent. sample on which the survey is based; and the published figures of the monthly average earnings index and of the October survey of manual employees' average earnings are both derived from calculations which give appropriate weight (based on the relative numbers of employees) to each three digit heading of the standard industrial classsification.