APPENDIX 27
Memorandum from the Department for Education
and Employment (JG 38)
MALE AND FEMALE EMPLOYMENT RATES BY LOCAL
AUTHORITY DISTRICTS
1. The DfEE memorandum to the inquiry included
information on total (male and female) employment rates by local
authorities. The sub-committee members asked for male and female
information to be provided separately. Maps for males and for
females are attached.
DATA ISSUES
2. In the original submission it was stressed
that the quality and availability of labour force survey (LFS)
information for small areas is reduced because the LFS is a survey.
Disaggregating the total employment rate information into rates
for males and females separately puts further strains on the quality
of the information. Thus, not only is the quality of the information
on rates by sex generally poorer than for the total DfEE also
believe that it is not possible to produce reliable information
for a number of local authority districts because it puts too
much strain on the sample information. Of the 408 local authority
districts there are 31 (8 per cent) where information on male
rates is not available and 49 (12 per cent) where female rates
are not available. Unfortunately, a sizeable number of the districts
where information is not available are in areas where employment
is relatively low (and hence the sample numbers for employment
are small). However, the discussion below does try to draw some
inferences on these areas from the information which is available.
THE OVERALL
PICTURE
3. The picture presented by maps for males
and females is very similar to the total picture. Therefore, it
appears that areas with low employment rates overall also have
low male and female rates. Similarly, high rates overall are accompanied
by high male and female rates. This picture is confirmed by Graph
2mf which directly compares the female and male rates with the
total rates. The graph shows that, generally, the higher the total
employment rate the higher is both the male and female employment
rate.
4. Overall, for the period March 1998 to
February 1999 the GB working age employment rate was 73.9 per
cent (aged 16 to 59/64) with the male rate at 78.8 per cent (aged
16 to 64) and the female rate at 68.5 per cent (aged 16 to 59).
On a comparable 1997 basis the overall EU average is around 62
per cent (61.1 per cent for those aged 15 to 64); the male rate
is around 71 per cent (70.6 per cent for those aged 15 to 64)
and the female rate is around 54 per cent (50.6 per cent for those
aged 15 to 64). The differences between EU and GB rates is substantially
greater for women and only three GB districts have female employment
rates below the EU average of around 54 per cent—Tower Hamlets,
Knowsley and Liverpool (where local authority district estimates
are available). For males the gap between the EU and GB averages
is smaller and, hence, there are more districts—around 40
which is roughly 10 per cent of all districts—where the
male employment rates are below the EU average.
5. Comparing the picture for males and females
in every district male employment is greater in every district
except Haringey, Exeter, Carrick and Carlisle. Also, despite the
fact that the employment rate for females covers a smaller range
of ages (16 to 59) than males (16 to 64) in the vast majority
of cases the female rate is lower than the male rate. In the 359
districts where there is information for both males and females
only seven (2 per cent) had female rates at or above the male
rates[2].
Interestingly, there is no overlap between the districts where
the level of female employment is above that of males and the
districts where the female employment rates are higher.
6. The vast bulk of districts have male
employment rates in the range 70 to 90 per cent with most of these
over 80 per cent. For females the picture is very similar but
10 percentage points lower. The vast bulk of districts have rates
in the range 60 to 80 per cent with most of these over 70 per
cent.
7. At the top end of the distribution there
are a similar number of districts with male employment rates of
90 per cent or more (31.8 per cent) and female rates of 80 per
cent or more (26.7 per cent) to the number of districts with an
overall employment rate of 85 per cent or more (23.6 per cent).
There is also considerable but not complete overlap between these
three sets of districts.
8. A fair number of the two dozen or so
districts with very high employment rates are in the South East
and include, predictably, areas in Berkshire, Surrey and Oxfordshire.
Parts of the South West (Swindon, East Devon and North Dorset)
also feature. However, the very highest employment rates are not
exclusively in the South East or South West and only one South
Eastern district, Newbury, is amongst the 10 districts with the
highest overall employment rate. Most, six, are in the Midlands
with two in the West Midlands and four in the East Midlands including
Harborough which has the highest rate. Yorkshire and the Humber
(Craven) and the Eastern region (Forest Heath and East Cambridgeshire)
also feature in the 10 districts with the highest overall employment
rates.
DISTRICTS WITH
LOW EMPLOYMENT
RATES
9. DfEE's original submission identified
17 districts (and the City of London) with overall employment
rates below the EU average of around 62 per cent. Not surprisingly,
as the table below shows, these districts also tend to have low
male and female employment rates.
| District | Employment Rates %
| Rank: Low = 1
|
| | Total:
| Male: | Female
| Total: | Male:
| Female |
| Tower Hamlets | 53.1
| 61.7 | 43.1
| 1 | 8
| 1 |
| Knowsley | 53.2
| 57.4 | 49.2
| 2 | 2
| 3 |
| Liverpool | 55.2
| 59.5 | 50.7
| 3 | 4
| 4 |
| Manchester | 55.5
| 54.7 | 56.6
| 4 | 1
| 17 |
| Merthyr Tydfil | 55.5
| * | *
| 4 | *
| * |
| Glasgow City | 55.9
| 58.6 | 53.5
| 6 | 3
| 11 |
| Newham | 56.4
| 68.9 | 43.4
| 7 | 27
| 2 |
| Easington | 57.0
| 61.3 | 52.8
| 8 | 7
| 7 |
| Hackney | 58.2
| 60.9 | 56.0
| 9 | 5
| 16 |
| Middlesbrough | 58.8
| 64.7 | 53.1
| 10 | 10
| 10 |
| Blaenau Gwent | 60.2
| 83.8 | 55.1
| 11 | 9
| 14 |
| City of London | 60.3
| * | *
| 12 | *
| * |
| Pembrokeshire | 60.7
| * | *
| 13 | *
| * |
| Sunderland | 60.9
| 65.4 | 55.7
| 14 | 13
| 13 |
| Haringey | 61.0
| 60.9 | 60.8
| 15 | 16
| 32 |
| Gwynedd | 61.0
| * | *
| 16 | *
| * |
| East Ayrshire | 61.1
| * | *
| 17 | *
| * |
| Newcastle upon Tyne | 61.9
| 66.5 | 56.7
| 18 | 15
| 18 |
* Information is not available because the LFS samples
sizes are too small.
10. However, although in general districts which have
low overall employment rates also have low employment rates for
males and females the addition of information on male and female
rates does allow a slightly more distinctive picture. The very
low overall employment rates in the London boroughs of Tower Hamlets
and Newham is, to a degree due to the exceedingly low female employment
rates. This contrasts with the other London boroughs of Hackney
and Haringey in the list where their low ranking is due more to
low male employment rates. Similarly, most of the other districts
in the list tend to feature more because their male rather than
their female employment rates are very low—particularly
Manchester, Glasgow City and Liverpool.
11. Other districts which have low overall employment
rates (between the EU average of 62 per cent and up to 65 per
cent) because their female employment rates are very low (below
60 per cent) whilst their male employment rates are at 70 per
cent or above are (starting with the lowest overall employment
rate) Sedgefield, Great Yarmouth, Blackburn, Islington and Thanet.
12. Conversely, districts with low employment rates because
their male employment rates are very low (below 70 per cent) whilst
their female employment rates are at 60 per cent or above are
(again starting with the lowest overall employment rate) Barnsley,
Barrow in Furness, Halton, Wolverhampton, Wirral and Redcar &
Cleveland.
2
The eight districts, in ascending order of female employment
rates, are Manchester, Preston, Swansea, Lancaster, Argyll &
Bute, Tynedale and North Cornwall. Back
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