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Welsh Government
Data Provider: Welsh Government National Statistics CHART: Economic inactivity rates by UK country and quarter (seasonally adjusted)
Chart corresponding to the data table
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Click here to sortAug 2014 to Oct 2014Click here to sortAug 2015 to Oct 2015Click here to sortAug 2016 to Oct 2016Click here to sortAug 2017 to Oct 2017Click here to sortAug 2018 to Oct 2018Click here to sortAug 2019 to Oct 2019Data for the period January to March 2019 onwards are not comparable with previous periods due to a discontinuity in the time series following a reweighting of the data.Click here to sortAug 2020 to Oct 2020Data for the period January to March 2019 onwards are not comparable with previous periods due to a discontinuity in the time series following a reweighting of the data.Click here to sortAug 2021 to Oct 2021Data for the period January to March 2019 onwards are not comparable with previous periods due to a discontinuity in the time series following a reweighting of the data.Click here to sortAug 2022 to Oct 2022Data for the period January to March 2019 onwards are not comparable with previous periods due to a discontinuity in the time series following a reweighting of the data.Click here to sortAug 2023 to Oct 2023Data for the period January to March 2019 onwards are not comparable with previous periods due to a discontinuity in the time series following a reweighting of the data.Click here to sortAug 2024 to Oct 2024Data for the period January to March 2019 onwards are not comparable with previous periods due to a discontinuity in the time series following a reweighting of the data.
[Collapse]United KingdomThe estimates for Northern Ireland have not had the non-response bias adjustment from the recent reweighting fully applied. Early indications suggest the impact on UK headline rate estimates would be less than 0.1 percentage point.22.3(r) The data item has been revised since previously published in StatsWales. The revision may not be reflected in the rounded value.21.9(r) The data item has been revised since previously published in StatsWales. The revision may not be reflected in the rounded value.21.7(r) The data item has been revised since previously published in StatsWales. The revision may not be reflected in the rounded value.21.6(r) The data item has been revised since previously published in StatsWales. The revision may not be reflected in the rounded value.21.1(r) The data item has been revised since previously published in StatsWales. The revision may not be reflected in the rounded value.20.921.421.621.9(r) The data item has been revised since previously published in StatsWales. The revision may not be reflected in the rounded value.21.921.7
United KingdomThe estimates for Northern Ireland have not had the non-response bias adjustment from the recent reweighting fully applied. Early indications suggest the impact on UK headline rate estimates would be less than 0.1 percentage point.[Expand]England22.021.621.421.220.720.4(r) The data item has been revised since previously published in StatsWales. The revision may not be reflected in the rounded value.20.9(r) The data item has been revised since previously published in StatsWales. The revision may not be reflected in the rounded value.21.121.5(r) The data item has been revised since previously published in StatsWales. The revision may not be reflected in the rounded value.21.421.1
[Expand]Wales25.724.723.623.521.122.9(r) The data item has been revised since previously published in StatsWales. The revision may not be reflected in the rounded value.24.7(r) The data item has been revised since previously published in StatsWales. The revision may not be reflected in the rounded value.23.9(r) The data item has been revised since previously published in StatsWales. The revision may not be reflected in the rounded value.25.8(r) The data item has been revised since previously published in StatsWales. The revision may not be reflected in the rounded value.25.425.2
[Expand]Scotland21.421.122.521.822.0(r) The data item has been revised since previously published in StatsWales. The revision may not be reflected in the rounded value.23.2(r) The data item has been revised since previously published in StatsWales. The revision may not be reflected in the rounded value.22.9(r) The data item has been revised since previously published in StatsWales. The revision may not be reflected in the rounded value.23.0(r) The data item has been revised since previously published in StatsWales. The revision may not be reflected in the rounded value.22.2(r) The data item has been revised since previously published in StatsWales. The revision may not be reflected in the rounded value.23.624.0
[Expand]Northern IrelandThe estimates for Northern Ireland have not had the non-response bias adjustment from the recent reweighting fully applied. Early indications suggest the impact on UK headline rate estimates would be less than 0.1 percentage point.27.126.925.928.727.8(r) The data item has been revised since previously published in StatsWales. The revision may not be reflected in the rounded value.25.8(r) The data item has been revised since previously published in StatsWales. The revision may not be reflected in the rounded value.27.228.7(r) The data item has been revised since previously published in StatsWales. The revision may not be reflected in the rounded value.26.6(r) The data item has been revised since previously published in StatsWales. The revision may not be reflected in the rounded value.25.826.6

Metadata

Title

Labour Force Survey: Summary of economic activity

Last update

19 December 2024 19 December 2024

Next update

23 January 2025

Publishing organisation

Welsh Government

Source 1

Labour Force Survey, Office for National Statistics

Contact email

LabourMarket.Stats@gov.wales

Designation

National Statistics

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

General description

These data are taken from the Labour Force Survey (LFS) carried out by the Office for National Statistics (ONS). The data are seasonally adjusted and are updated each month to give a time series of three month averages up to and including the latest three month period for the UK and each UK country and English region.

Data collection and calculation

The population can be broken down into economically active and economically inactive populations. The economically active population is made up of persons in employment, and persons unemployed according to the International Labour Organisation (ILO) definition. This report allows the user to access these data.
Although each measure is available for different population bases, there is an official standard population base used for each of the measures, as follows.
Population aged 16 and over: Economic activity level, Employment level, ILO unemployment level
Population aged 16-64: Economic inactivity level
16-64 population is used as the base for economic inactivity. By excluding persons of pensionable age who are generally retired and therefore economically inactive, this gives a more appropriate measure of workforce inactivity.
Rates for each of the above measures are also calculated in a standard manner and are available in the dataset. With the exception of the ILO unemployment rate, each rate is defined in terms of the shares of population that fall into each category. The ILO unemployment rate is defined as ILO unemployed persons as a percentage of the economically active population.
Although each rate is available for the different population bases, there is an official standard population base used for each of the rates, as follows.
Percentage of population aged 16-64: Economic activity, Employment,. Economic inactivity
Percentage of economically active population aged 16 and over: ILO unemployment

Frequency of publication

Monthly

Data reference periods

1992 to 2024

Rounding applied

Figures are rounded to the nearest thousand and so there may be some apparent slight discrepancies between the sum of constituent items and the totals as shown.

Revisions information

The LFS is not designed to measure changes in the levels of population or long-term international migration.

The Office for National Statistics (ONS) published reweighted LFS estimates for Wales in December 2024 from the period January to March 2019, resulting in a step change in the data. Comparisons with periods prior to January to March 2019 are not strictly valid due to this discontinuity in the time series. The full impact of this reweighting is detailed in the article ‘Impact of reweighting on Labour Force Survey key indicators in Wales – December 2024’, available in the December 2024 Labour Market Overview: https://www.ons.gov.uk/employmentandlabourmarket/peopleinwork/employmentandemployeetypes/articles/impactofreweightingonlabourforcesurveykeyindicators/december2024?

Weblinks

www.ons.gov.uk

Keywords

Labour market; Employment; Unemployment; Economic inactive

Statistical quality

All this information comes from the LFS, carried out by the ONS. 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 regional data are subject to higher variability than UK data.
LFS data is collected throughout the year, and is available from the ONS in a variety of ways. This dataset contains three-monthly figures for UK countries and the English regions, and is updated on a monthly basis, as referred to in the first bullet below.
Key data on the labour market is updated every month showing the position for the latest three months, for the UK and each of the UK countries and English regions. Note these data are seasonally adjusted and also that no sub-regional (i.e. local authority) data are published by the ONS to a monthly timetable.
Annual results covering the periods described earlier are also available from the ONS, providing more detailed data from the LFS, including data for sub-Wales geographies. These annual datasets use results from the samples for the quarterly surveys used for the key series, together with results from additional persons sampled to provide a more robust (boosted) dataset, with estimates subject to much lower sampling variability.
Note finally that the ILO unemployment measure differs from another commonly used measure of unemployment, namely the claimant count. The latter is a count of all those claiming unemployment benefit, and as such it is not subject to sampling variability. However, it excludes those who are unemployed who are not eligible to claim (for example those out of work but whose partner works), and those who do not wish to claim. The ILO measure, which is a count of those who are out of work and want a job, have actively sought work in the last 4 weeks and are available to start work in the next two weeks; plus those who are out of work, have found a job and are waiting to start in the next 2 weeks, is a more encompassing measure of unemployment, which is used around the world.
An issue has been detected in the weighting of the Labour Force Survey (LFS) for Northern Ireland for the November 2023 to January 2024 quarter only. While only Northern Ireland data are affected, as a consequence the Office for National Statistics (ONS) have not published any regional LFS figures as part of the March 2024 release in any of their releases, with the data for Wales being published as an ad-hoc release.
Due to the current data quality concerns with the LFS, labour market estimates for Wales should be considered alongside estimates and trends from other data sources. Breakdowns by sex have been temporarily removed from the Labour Market Overview bulletin due to these data quality concerns. We are continuing to monitor the performance and reliability of the LFS, and plan to reintroduce these estimates to the bulletin at a time when they provide a more accurate picture of the labour market in Wales.