Other information

Coverage

England and Wales

Units

Persons

Keywords

Employment,Sex,Economic activity,Unemployment

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About this dataset

This dataset provides Census 2021 estimates that classify usual residents aged 16 years and over in England and Wales by economic activity status, by sex, and by whether and when they were last employed. The estimates are as at Census Day, 21 March 2021.

Protecting personal data

Sometimes we need to make changes to data if it is possible to identify individuals. This is known as statistical disclosure control. In Census 2021, we:

  • Swapped records (targeted record swapping), for example, if a household was likely to be identified in datasets because it has unusual characteristics, we swapped the record with a similar one from a nearby small area. Very unusual households could be swapped with one in a nearby local authority.
  • Added small changes to some counts (cell key perturbation), for example, we might change a count of four to a three or a five. This might make small differences between tables depending on how the data are broken down when we applied perturbation.

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About the variables

Economic activity status (7 categories)

Description: People aged 16 years and over are economically active if, between 15 March and 21 March 2021, they were: * in employment (an employee or self-employed) * unemployed, but looking for work and could start within two weeks * unemployed, but waiting to start a job that had been offered and accepted

It is a measure of whether or not a person was an active participant in the labour market during this period. Economically inactive are those aged 16 years and over who did not have a job between 15 March to 21 March 2021 and had not looked for work between 22 February to 21 March 2021 or could not start work within two weeks.

The census definition differs from International Labour Organization definition used on the Labour Force Survey, so estimates are not directly comparable.

This classification splits out full-time students from those who are not full-time students when they are employed or unemployed. It is recommended to sum these together to look at all of those in employment or unemployed, or to use the four category labour market classification, if you want to look at all those with a particular labour market status.

Quality information: As Census 2021 was during a unique period of rapid change, take care when using Labour Market data for planning purposes.

Comparability with 2011: Broadly comparable. We changed some of the wording on the Census 2021 questionnaire and removed some of the options that people could choose from.

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Employment history (4 categories)

Description: Classifies people who were not in employment on Census Day into: * Not in employment: Worked in the last 12 months * Not in employment: Not worked in the last 12 months * Not in employment: Never worked

Quality information: As Census 2021 was during a unique period of rapid change, take care when using this data for planning purposes.

Comparability with 2011: Not comparable. The question on employment history changed between the 2011 and 2021 census.

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Sex (3 categories)

Description: This is the sex recorded by the person completing the census. The options were "Female" and "Male".

Comparability with 2011: Highly comparable

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