The Scottish Government’s Quality Assessment of the Office for National Statistics Labour Force Survey and Annual Population Survey data for Scotland

Annex 5: Detailed Quality Assessment Results for Fair Work Convention Fair Work Indicators

The Fair Work Convention (FWC) use a number of fair work indicators from the ONS Labour Force Survey (LFS) and the Annual Population Survey (APS). These indicators are divided into five main categories of fair work:

• Security (Table A30)
• Respect (Table A31)
• Effective Voice (Table A32)
• Fulfilment (Table A33)
• Opportunity (Table A34)

Some of the Fair Work Indicators are covered in previous sections of this paper, links to which can be found in the following tables.

Table A30: Summary of Fair Work Convention Security Indicators and their source data

Table A31: Summary of Fair Work Convention Respect Indicators and their source data

Table A32: Summary of Fair Work Convention Effective Voice Indicators and their source data

Table A33: Summary of Fair Work Convention Fulfilment Indicators and their source data

Table: A34: Summary of Fair Work Convention Opportunity Indicators and their source data.

Of the indicators which are not sourced from another organisation, there remain 21 indicators to consider. As noted in the tables, three indicators are also National Performance Indicators (see Detailed Quality Assessment Results for National Performance Framework Indicators); a further seven have already been discussed in relation to sections of the People, Places, and Regions publication (see Detailed Quality Assessment Results for Scotland's Labour Market: People, Places, and Regions); one is discussed in the Job Quality section (see Detailed Quality Assessment Results for Job Quality Indicators); and the data for four FWC indicators are not available at present.

This leaves seven indicators:

• underemployment

• involuntary non-permanent work
• involuntary part-time work
• zero hours contract
• type of training
• trade union membership
• trade union presence

The underemployment; involuntary non-permanent work; involuntary part-time work; zero hours contract; and type of training indicators are sourced from the APS and are compared over the Jan-Dec 2019 and Jan-Dec 2023 period. The trade union membership and trade union presence indicators are sourced from the LFS and compared over the Oct-Dec 2019 and Oct-Dec 2023 period.

Sample sizes

When considering the change in sample size in Scotland for Fair Work Indicators between 2019 and 2023:

• the achieved sample size for all estimates has dropped considerably
• the average decrease was -59.4%
• the largest decrease was for the “trade union presence” indicator which fell by -70.5%
• the smallest decrease was for the “zero hours contract” indicator which fell by -30.1%

Figure A27: Since 2019, sample sizes for have decreased for all LFS and APS sourced Fair Work Indicators

Estimates of percentage change in sample size between Jan-Dec 2019 and Jan-Dec 2023 for APS sourced Fair Work Indicators and between Oct-Dec 2019 and Oct-Dec 2023 for LFS sourced Fair Work Indicators

Note 1: Trade union membership and trade union presence are sourced from the ONS Labour Force Survey. All other estimates are sourced from the ONS Annual Population Survey

Note 2: Estimate for zero hours contracts are for Jan-Dec 2020 instead of Jan-Dec 2019 due to changes in question being introduced in Jan-Mar 2020 creating a subsequent break in series.

Coefficient of Variation

When considering the change in CVs between 2019 and 2023 for the Fair Work estimates in Scotland:

• all CVs have increased
• the average increase was 2.55
• the largest increase was for the “involuntary non-permanent work” indicator which increased by 4.62 from 6.93 to 11.54
• the smallest increase was for the “zero hours contract” indicator which increased by 0.87 from 6.02 to 6.89

Figure A28: Since 2019, coefficients of variation for all LFS and APS sourced Fair Work estimates have increased

Estimates of coefficients of variation for APS sourced Fair Work Indicators, Jan-Dec 2019 and Jan-Dec 2023 and estimates of coefficients of variation for LFS sourced Fair Work Indicators, Oct-Dec 2019 and Oct-Dec 2023

Note 1: Trade union membership and trade union presence are sourced from the ONS Labour Force Survey. All other estimates are sourced from the ONS Annual Population Survey

Note 2: Estimate for zero hours contracts are for Jan-Dec 2020 instead of Jan-Dec 2019 due to changes in question being introduced in Jan-Mar 2020 creating a subsequent break in series.

Current Data Quality Rules

As with the NPF, there are multiple breakdowns which can be provided for each indicator. However, we will focus on the main headline indicators in this section. In doing so we can see that in 2019 all seven of the indicators were “robust” under current data quality rules at headline level for Scotland and remained “robust” in 2023.

Table A35: Summary of robustness for Fair Work Convention Opportunity Indicators in 2019 and 2023

Note 1: Estimates for Jan-Dec 2020 instead of Jan-Dec 2019 due to changes in question being introduced in Jan-Mar 2020 creating a subsequent break in series.

Data Confidence Ratings

From the Scottish data reported in the FWC Indicators, six of the seven estimates assessed in this section have decreased in confidence rating between 2019 and 2023.

Based on 2023 data for Scotland, we have “limited confidence” in one of the seven estimates and “moderate confidence” in the remaining six estimates.

Table A36: Summary of confidence rating for Fair Work Convention Opportunity Indicators in 2019 and 2023

Note 1: Estimates for Jan-Dec 2020 instead of Jan-Dec 2019 due to changes in question being introduced in Jan-Mar 2020 creating a subsequent break in series.