Economic Activity and Occupation

Economic Activity

Scotland’s Census 2022 collected information on economic activity. This question asked persons aged 16 and over if they were working or looking for work the week before they responded in the census. It measures whether a person was an active participant in the labour market and provides insight into employment, unemployment, and economic status. It also measures whether a person was economically inactive due to one of the reasons: retired, student, looking after home/family, long-term sick or disabled, or other.

About half of Roma people (52.9%), reported being in either full-time or part-time employment. This was followed by 11.7% in full-time or part-time self-employment and 9.6% being economically inactive due to being students.

Table 2: Economic activity for Roma people, by Number and Proportion

Note: The categories ‘Employee’ and ‘Self-employed’ include full-time and part-time economic activity.

Occupation

Scotland’s Census asked people aged 16 and over to describe their full job title in order to derive their occupation, or the occupation in their last main job. The Standard Occupational Classification 2020 was applied to code job titles and descriptions into various categories.

Almost a third of Roma people reported an Elementary occupation (29.5%). Elementary occupations is a broad category in which job titles and descriptions are coded where usually a minimum general level of education is required (usually attained by the end of compulsory education). For some occupations this may include short periods of work-related training in health and safety, food hygiene, and customer service. In contrast, only 3.5% of Roma people reported working as Managers, Directors and Senior Officials.

Table 3: Occupation for Roma people, by Number and Proportion