Title

Percentage of people in employment who are on permanent contracts (or on temporary contracts and not seeking permanent employment) and who earn more than two thirds of the UK median wage

Last update

9 September 2021 9 September 2021

Next update

TBC

Publishing organisation

Welsh Government

Source 1

Annual Population Survey, Office for National Statistics

Source 2

Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings, Office for National Statistics

Contact email

economic.stats@gov.wales

Designation

None

Lowest level of geographical disaggregation

UK regions

Geographical coverage

UK regions

Languages covered

English and Welsh

Data licensing

You may use and re-use this data free of charge in any format or medium, under the terms of the Open Government License - see http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence

Weblinks

https://www.ons.gov.uk/employmentandlabourmarket/peopleinwork/employmentandemployeetypes/methodologies/annualpopulationsurveyapsqmi

Keywords

Earnings

General description

The Annual Population Survey (APS) is an annual survey of households living at private addresses in the UK, with an achieved sample size of around 285,000 individuals from approximately 125,000 households. The survey uses results from responses to waves 1 and 5 of the main quarterly Labour Force Survey (LFS) and since 2001 an additional ‘boost’ sample contacted on an annual basis. This boost sample is to provide a more robust annual dataset across more detailed geographies within the UK, with estimates subject to much lower sampling variability.

The figures for all employees are subject to variation due to changes in the number of part-time employees in the sample, and the number of hours those part-time employees work, we will be including the figures for full-time employees shortly. UK median wage data is from the Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings for employees earning a full adult rate and whose pay was not affected by absence.

Frequency of publication

Annual

Data reference periods

2013 to 2020

Statistical quality

Annual Population Survey (APS) responses are weighted to official population projections. The projections for 2020 were 2018-based, and, therefore, were based on demographic trends that pre-dated the COVID-19 pandemic.
To allow for different trends during the pandemic the responses for the APS have been reweighted on the 9 September 2021 to new populations derived using growth rates from HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) Real Time Information (RTI). The reweighting has been applied from year ending March 2020 data onwards and gives improved estimates of both rates and levels.
The changes ONS have made to the weighting should reduce the bias of estimates at high levels of aggregation. Some smaller breakdowns may be impacted negatively and more extreme changes could be seen given the reduced size of the underlying sample since the start of the pandemic.
As the data come from a survey, the results are sample-based estimates and therefore subject to differing degrees of sampling variability, i.e. the true value for any measure lies in a differing range about the estimated value. This range or sampling variability increases as the detail in the data increases, for example individual local authority data are subject to higher variability than Wales data.
The data comes from the Annual Population Survey (APS) so the results are sample-based estimates and are therefore subject to sampling error. However, the sampling errors are small because the APS uses a single-stage, random sample of addresses. The geographical ordering of the sampling frame implicitly stratifies the sample.

There is also sample attrition, where respondents begin the survey but drop out in subsequent waves. Respondents who remain in all waves of the survey tend to have different characteristics to those who do not, and this can result in sample attrition bias. Proxy responses are collected where there are other individuals in the household who can answer on behalf of an absent respondent, reducing non-response bias.

The APS excludes most communal establishments. Members of the armed forces are only included if they live in private accommodation. Workers under 16 years of age are not covered.

Name

ECON0102