§ Mr. Frank FieldTo ask the Secretary of State for Employment how many workers were excluded for the 1994 new earnings survey; what were the main reasons for such exclusion; and how many were excluded for each reason.
§ Mr. OppenheimThe new earnings survey sampling fraction is nominally 1 per cent. of employees in employment. The following table presents the actual sampling fractions of the 1994 NES, based on employees in employment at March 1994.
Number of employees Employees in employment(a) NES (b) Sampling fraction (percent.) (b)/(a) Full-time 14,961,000 120,219 .80 Part-time 5,876,000 35,159 .60 All employees 20,837,000 155,378 .75 The main reasons for the exclusion of full-time workers are: they were no longer working for the employer recorded on the Inland Revenue file of names and addresses used to distribute the questionnaires, in some cases, because the employer had gone out of business; because the worker was in a category—for example, occupational pensioner, non-salaried director, working for spouse, working outside the United Kingdom—not covered by the survey; and because there were unresolved inconsistencies in the data provided by employers.
In addition to these reasons, part-time workers are excluded if they are not on the Inland Revenue file. This will happen if their gross weekly earnings are below the threshold for PAYE.