The information requested falls within the responsibility of the UK Statistics Authority. I have asked the Authority to reply.Letter from Mike Hughes, dated November 2008:"The National Statistician has been asked to reply to your Parliamentary Question asking pursuant to the Oral Answer to the hon. Member for Epsom and Ewell of 20th October 2008, Official Report, column 4, on labour statistics, how many (a) British born and (b) emigrant workers were in employment (i) in October 2006 and (ii) on the latest date for which figures are available, and if a statement will be made. I am replying in her absence. (234060).""Your question has been answered on the same basis as the Oral answer you refer to, reported in the Official Report, column 4, on 20 October 2008.""The attached table gives the number of people of working age in employment in the United Kingdom by country of birth (UK born and Non-UK born), for October-December 2006, and April-June 2008 (the latest estimate available). Note that official employment estimates are published on a three month rolling basis; estimates for individual months are not available. The October-December 2006 estimate has therefore been provided. Estimates for April-June 2006 have also been included in the table to allow comparison of employment levels between the latest period available, and two years earlier.""Please note that the figures quoted in the Official Report (365,000 and 865,000) refer to the decrease in UK born employment, and increase in non-UK born employment respectively, over the last three years. However, due to a printing error in Hansard, the answer to Parliamentary Question 226214 (Official Report, 13 October 2008, columns 953W to 956W) incorrectly showed the estimated change in UK born employment from 2007 to 2008 as -24,000 rather than +24,000. As a consequence the estimated decrease in UK born employment over the last three years is 317,000 not 365,000.""The estimates in the table are derived from Labour Force Survey (LFS) microdata which are weighted using the official population estimates published in autumn 2007.""They are not entirely consistent with the figures published in the monthly Labour Market Statistics First Release which are weighted using more up-to-date population estimates. As with any sample survey, estimates from the LFS are subject to a margin of uncertainty. A guide to the quality of the estimates is given in the attached table." Employment levels for working age¹ population, by country of birth United Kingdom, not seasonally adjusted Thousand UK born Non-UK born April-June 2006 24,670 3,104 October-December 2006 24,744 3,207 April-June 2008² 24,532* 3,617* ¹ Men aged 16-64 and women aged 16-59. ² Coefficients of Variation have been calculated for the levels of the latest period as an indication of the quality of the estimates as described below: Guide to Quality The Coefficient of Variation (CV) indicates the quality of an estimate, the smaller the CV value the higher the quality. The true value is likely to lie within +/- twice the CV - for example, for an estimate of 200 with a CV of 5 per cent. we would expect the population total to be within the range 180-220 Key Coefficient of Variation (CV) (%) Statistical Robustness * 0 < CV< 5 Estimates are considered precise ** 5 < CV < 10 Estimates are considered reasonably precise *** 10 < CV < 20 Estimates are considered acceptable **** CV = 20 Estimates are considered too unreliable for practical purposes. It should be noted that the above estimates exclude people in most types of communal establishment (e.g. hotels, boarding houses, hostels, mobile home sites etc). Source: Labour Force Survey.