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Employment and Ethnicity from
the Annual Population Survey

August 2008

The Annual Population Survey (APS) is a survey of households in Great Britain, with the purpose to provide information on key social and socio-economic variables between the 10-yearly censuses.

The first publication of APS data covered the period January to December 2004. Subsequently, APS data have been published on a quarterly basis, but with each publication covering a year's data.

This research monitor uses results from the APS that consider employment rates in Lancashire by broad ethnic groups. The full range of all APS data sets for every part of the country can be downloaded from (External) NOMIS Labour Market Statistics . Once users have registered on the nomisweb site, it is possible to download any of the APS variables along with a wide range of other official government figures.

The APS results allocate individuals to one of the following ethnic groups: White, Mixed, Indian, Pakistani/ Bangladeshi, Black or Other Ethnic Group. The Lancashire results for the ethnic minority groupings are however, too small to provide anything more than broad indications of the situation in the county.

For the year to December 2007, there was a national total of 280,128 people surveyed, and in the Lancashire NUTS-2 area, 6,160 interviews took place.

Population

To provide some supporting material to the APS results, Table 1 includes ethnic results from the 2001 Census (for more details see the Ethnicity from the 2001 Census research monitor ). The census revealed that In the Lancashire NUTS-2 area, which includes Blackburn with Darwen and Blackpool Unitary Authorities, 1.32 million or 93.4% of the 1.41 million residents, gave their ethnic group as white British, Irish or other white background; a percentage that is slightly higher than the national average. In comparison, 92.1% of UK residents were classified as White British.

In total, 93,300 or 6.6% of the Lancashire population were included in a range of other ethnic groupings whilst for the UK the combined percentage was 8%.

Working-Age Employment from the Annual Population Survey

Table 2 lists the APS employment numbers and rates by six ethnic groups for the 14-authority Lancashire NUTS-2 area, and for Great Britain. As per the census results, the white ethnic group predominates at both the national and county levels. The Lancashire figures reveal the low estimates classified under the 'Black' and 'Mixed' headings. The relatively small numbers classified to the various other ethnic minority groups at the county level mean that these local figures should be used as nothing more than very general guides. The numbers and percentages are subject to large margins of error.

In total, it is estimated that 644,100 or 73.4% of the working age Lancashire population is economically active, whilst in comparison the GB percentage is higher at 74.4%.

At the national level, of note is the low activity rate for Pakistani/Bangladeshi females (25.5%). This may be attributable to cultural factors that reduce the propensity for woman from this ethnic group to consider paid employment. The same ethnic group also recorded the lowest employment rate for men whilst the Indian and White ethnic groups recorded the highest rates of male employment.

This page was compiled by Bryan Moulding .

All enquiries from the media should be sent to Corporate.Communications@lancashire.gov.uk .

Any other questions about the content of this page may be sent to EconInfo@lancashire.gov.uk .

For all enquiries about the county council's services , contact the Customer Service Centre on 0845 0530000 (01772 530000) or at Enquiries@css.lancscc.gov.uk .

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