Local Area Labour Markets in Scotland - Statistics from the Annual Population Survey 2011

About this publication

The Annual Population Survey (APS) combines results from the Labour Force Survey (LFS) and the English, Welsh and Scottish Labour Force Survey boosts. The boosts increase the sample size which means the APS can provide more robust labour market estimates for local areas compared to the main LFS. The Scottish Government funds the boost to the LFS sample in Scotland, taking the sample size from approximately 6,800 households each year to 21,500 households The APS is the primary source for information on local labour markets providing headline estimates on employment, unemployment and economic activity.

This is the ninth publication of the series. It aims to provide reliable and up-to-date headline information for local area labour markets and covers employment, underemployment, inactivity and youth participation in the labour market within Scotland and its local authorities. Results are provided for the calendar years (January to December) 2004 to 2011, based on the data released by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) on 21 June 2012. ONS have also released data for April 2011-March 2012 on the same day, and a summary of this release is provided in Annex G. Results for unemployment are not included in this publication as the model based local authority estimates will not be available until 18 July 2012. These results will be included in July's Labour Market Brief, which will be available for download from the Scottish Government's web-site at:

http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Statistics/Browse/Labour-Market/AnalyticalPapers

Estimates for age and gender equalities groups are included in this publication. However, estimates for other equalities groups are not included. An analysis of labour market indicators for these groups is planned for autumn 2012, using the most current available APS dataset. This will include estimates by religious group, disability and ethnicity; a full analysis by ethnicity is not possible using the January-December 2011 dataset due to multiple changes in the ethnicity questions through the year. Use of subsequent APS releases will allow analysis by ethnicity over a full year using a single consistent set of questions.