H100 Regional labour market indicators for Scotland: FOI release

Information requested

You asked:

Verification of employment statistics which show that in the month before (Apr 2007) SNP took control of Scotland and up-to the latest employment statistics (21 Jan 2020), Scotland has -4,000 fewer working age males in employment and If correct what additional powers over and above England, Wales and N Ireland are needed to be able to rectify this.

Response

The employment statistics you refer to are 'Regional labour market statistics: H100 Headline indicators for UK regions and countries ' most recently published by the Office for National Statistics on the 21st of January 2020 and sourced from the link you provided in your original request https://www.ons.gov.uk/employmentandlabourmarket/peopleinwork/employmentandemployeetypes/datasets/headlinelabourforcesurveyindicatorsforallregionshi00

This series provides headline regional labour market indicators for the regions of the UK ( seasonally adjusted). The most recent information for Scotland published 21 Jan 2020 shows that in Sep–Nov 2019 1,313,328 men (16-64 years) were in employment.

You refer to the net change in employment between April 2007 and latest in each of the countries of the UK.

The information in this series is produced each month for a rolling quarter. April 2007 is the mid-point of the Mar-May 2007 rolling quarter data. However I note you may have compared current data ( for Sep-Nov 2019) with the Apr-Jun 2007 quarter.

There is variation in the change over this period depending on which specific quarter you select around April 2007 as shown in table 1 below:

Table 1: Net change in employment level for men (16-64 years) to Sep–Nov 2019 (seasonally adjusted)

Comparator quarter	Change in level to Sep-Nov 2019
	Scotland	England	Wales	NI
Mar-May 2007	1,000	1,043,000	33,000	20,000
Apr-Jun 2007	-3,000	1,061,000	29,000	17,000

Source: H100 Regional labour market: Headline Labour Force Survey indicators for all regions
https://www.ons.gov.uk/employmentandlabourmarket/peopleinwork/employmentandemployeetypes/datasets

Figures are shown rounded to the nearest thousand.

While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance we are unable to provide some of the information you have requested because an exemption under section 17 of FOISA applies to that information. Information on “what additional powers over and above England, Wales and N Ireland are needed to be able to rectify this [getting more working age males into employment]” is exempt. This is because the Scottish Government does not hold this information. This is a formal notice under section 17(1) of FOISA that the Scottish Government does not have the information you have requested.

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