§ Mr. Paul MarsdenTo ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what has been the increase in the number employed in Shrewsbury and Atcham since 1 May 1997; and if he will make a statement. [101714]
§ Miss Melanie JohnsonThe information requested falls within the responsibility of the Director of the Office for National Statistics. I have asked him to reply.
584WLetter from John Pullinger to Mr. Paul Marsden, dated 7 December 1999:
The Director of the Office for National Statistics (ONS) has been asked to respond to your recent parliamentary question on the number of people employed in Shrewsbury and Atcham. I am replying in Dr Holt's absence.The most robust estimates at local authority level relate to jobs rather than numbers employed. These figures are available on an annual basis at September each year. In September 1997, the Annual Employment Survey (AES) shows that there were 39,000 employee jobs in the Shrewsbury and Atcham local authority district. This compares with 38,300 for September 1996. Information for September 1998 from the AES will be available in the next few months.Direct estimates of the numbers of people who are in employment and living in Shrewsbury and Atcham can be derived from the Labour Force Survey (LFS). Figures from this source cover employees, self-employed, unpaid family workers, and those on government employment training programmes, but are subject to larger sampling errors at local authority district level. For 1997–98, our best estimate on this basis is 47,000 which is the same as 1996–97.