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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 has been published on a quarterly basis, but with each set of results covering a year's data.

This research monitor uses figures from the APS that consider employment rates, inactivity and disability rates in the 14-authority Lancashire NUTS-2 area (includes the Lancashire County Council area and the two unitary authorities of Blackburn with Darwen and Blackpool). The full range of available data sets from the Annual Population Survey for all areas of the country can be downloaded from the NOMIS Labour Market Statistics website.

For the year to December 2007, there were a total of 280,128 people surveyed in Great Britain, with 6,160 of these interviews taking place in the broader Lancashire area. Broken down by the individual authorities, over half the Lancashire interviews were undertaken in the two unitary authorities of Blackburn with Darwen and Blackpool. The impact of the interviews in these two authorities will therefore have a disproportionately high affect on the overall Lancashire results.

Results for Lancashire

Table 1 reveals that it is estimated that 644,100 or 73.4% of the working age population in the broader Lancashire area are in employment. In comparison, the Greta Britain percentage is slightly higher at 74.4%. Of the total working age population 64.8% of those employed in Lancashire are employees, whilst a further 8.2% are self-employed. At the national level, the proportion who are self-employed is 1.1 percentage points higher.

Of the total inactive population of working age in Lancashire, approximately 42,800 would like a job, whilst 160,900 stated that they do not wish to have a job. At the national level, there is a slightly higher proportion of inactive people who want to have a job. Disability may be a factor that influences the level of inactivity and this area is explored in Table2.

Table 2 details employment rates in the county and nationally for disabled and non-disabled employees of working age. Not surprisingly, the rates for disabled workers are far lower than non-disabled workers. At the national level, 51.2% of disabled males of working age are estimated to be in employment whilst 48.5% of disabled females are in work. The Lancashire figures, which are based on a much smaller sample size and therefore arte far more volatile, suggest that proportionately fewer disabled males are in work than compared with the national averages.

Our Health and Wellbeing research monitors contain an article that uses 2001 Census data on the number of people in Lancashire with a limiting long-term illness. The monitor states that 137,199 or 9.7% of the working age population of the county were classified in this category. This compares with an England and Wales average of 8.3%. The APS results conclude that employment rates for the disabled in the county may lag behind the national levels.

For further details, or if you have any ideas for improving the content of this article, please contact:
Bryan Moulding
Tel 01772 534172
Email Bryan.Moulding@lancashire.gov.uk