Sub-regional Public Sector Employee Job Estimates

BIS have released estimates of public sector employee jobs by local authority (LA) and travel to work area (TTWA) based on estimates from the Annual Business Inquiry (ABI).

The preferred source of public sector employment data is the National Statistics Public Sector Employment (PSE) series. This is published quarterly by ONS and the Scottish Government based on public sector returns. However, this source only provides employment estimates at national and regional (government office) level.

There are some limitations and caveats that should be understood before this data is used. In particular, unlike the Public Sector Employment figures produced by ONS and the Scottish Government, these estimates are measures of jobs not people/employment. They cover employee jobs rather than the wider measure of workforce jobs i.e. they exclude self-employed jobs, HM Forces and Government Supported Trainees. The estimates also exclude employee jobs in farm agriculture. Full details on the limitations and caveats of these estimates can be found in the first worksheet of the excel file which can be downloaded from the link below.

Sub-regional Public and Private Sector Employee Job Estimates (link)

Difference between ABI and PSE figures

The ONS's Public Sector Employment (PSE) surveys are its official and recommended source for estimates of employment in the sector as they have comprehensive coverage of employers. ONS's PSE estimates are produced on a national and regional (Government Office Region) basis. However, official PSE estimates are not available at a sub-regional level. To plug this gap, the ABI (Annual Business Inquiry) can be used to supplement the figures from PSE, but users need to be aware that there are differences between the official estimates of public sector employment and the ABI (table 1).

Table 1: A comparison of official PSE estimates and ABI estimates for Q3 2008
(Thousands; Headcount)

There are several reasons for the differences between the estimates from PSE and ABI. PSE is a census of all public sector organisations so has complete coverage of the sector. The ABI is a sampled survey and applies appropriate 'weights' to estimate for the non-sampled businesses and is completed on an industry basis. This means that non-sampled public sector organisations are combined in the estimation process with private sector organisations.

In addition the ABI collects data at site level for some organisations which provides an accurate picture of the geography and industry for these. However, for many organisations employee figures are collected at the overall level and figures are apportioned out to the site level using auxiliary information to produce industry and geographical splits. This is an additional stage of estimation. A similar apportionment exists for PSE to produce estimates on a GOR basis but as this is done from an overall figure derived from a census the total level is deemed to be a more accurate picture.

The 2008 ABI employee estimates are based on a September reference date so are most comparable to the 2008Q3 Public Sector Employment figures. Since the publication of Q3 2008 estimates of public sector employment several major financial institutions (Royal Bank of Scotland and Lloyds Banking Group) have been classified from the private to the public sector. This has served, along with other increases in employment over this period, to increase levels of public sector employment across all regions (table 2).

Table 2: A comparison of official PSE estimates 2008Q3 and 2010Q1
(Thousands )