Supplementary memorandum by the Department
for Work and Pensions (CT 60 (a))
EMPLOYMENT IN
COASTAL TOWNS
Q. The statistics provided within the DWP
memorandum indicate that there is "little evidence that employment
in coastal towns is particularly concentrated in temporary or
self-employment". The Committee would be grateful if you
could provide details of the methodology used in the collation
of these statistics, including an explanation of the definition
of "temporary", and the reasoning behind the choice
of sample coastal towns used within this analysis.
Q. During the evidence session it was stated
that "seasonal employment is included in temporary employment
in these figures" (Q353). In answer to a further question
on seasonal employment it was stated that "the degree of
seasonality in employment and unemployment is higher in most coastal
towns" (Q362). Please provide clarification on whether the
figures provided to the Committee accurately incorporate seasonal
employment levels and if not an explanation of how the DWP accurately
assesses the nature of employment in coastal towns
SELECTION OF
COASTAL TOWNS
The local authority district (LAD) level is
the smallest level of geography for which employment data is available.
The coastal towns were selected on the basis that they comprise
an LAD in their own right or that they make up the majority population
of one. Thanet LAD, for example, contains both Margate and Ramsgate;
Scarborough LAD includes both Scarborough and Whitby. Several
coastal towns in England (Newquay and Penzance in Cornwall; Littlehampton
in West Sussex and Skegness in Lincolnshire, for example) have
populations that comprise only a small part of the non-metropolitan
LADs where they are situated.
EMPLOYMENT AND
ITS MEASUREMENT
Employment in local authority districts (including
coastal towns) is measured using the Local Area Labour Force Survey
(up to 2003) and the Annual Population Survey (APS—2004
onwards), both of which are self-assessed residence-based surveys
looking at population, economic activity (employment and unemployment)
economic inactivity and qualifications. The APS is updated quarterly.
People aged 16 or over are classed as employed
if they have done at least one hour of work (paid or unpaid) in
the reference week or are temporarily away from a job (for example,
if they are on holiday).
Respondents classify themselves into one of
four employment status categories (and according to their main
job if they have more than one). These categories are employees,
the self-employed, unpaid family workers or participants in government-supported
training schemes.
— Employees are those who are in employment
and paid a wage by an employer for the work that they do. This
category may be further sub-divided into permanent and temporary
employees.
— The self-employed are defined as
those who, in their main job, work on their own account, whether
or not they have employees.
— Unpaid family workers are those whose
work contributes directly to a business, owned or operated either
by themselves or by a relative, but who receive no pay or profits
for this work.
— People on government-supported training
schemes include those doing work experience with an employer and
those engaged wholly in training.
Temporary Employment covers those employees
who say that their main job is not permanent in one of the following
ways: fixed period contract, agency temping, casual work, seasonal
work or other temporary work. This is also based on respondents'
self-assessment.
Seasonal Employment is thus a subset
of Temporary Employment. Further statistics are given in charts
1 and 2.
THE TOURISM
SECTOR
Under the UK Standard Industrial Classification
(SIC) system certain industries can be classed as "tourism-related".
Some of these industries (such as hotels and tour coaches) are
specific to tourism while others, such as restaurants and bars,
cater both to tourists and local residents. Conversely, other
sectors which serve the local community and not classed as tourism
related also cater to tourists, such as transport (the great western
main line in the South West, for example) petrol stations and
financial services (foreign exchange services).
Tourism-related industries include:
— Hotels (SIC group 551).
— Camping and short-stay accommodation
(552).
— Activities of travel agencies and
tour operators (633).
— Libraries, archives, museums and
other cultural activities (925).
— Sporting activities (926).
— Other recreational activities (927).
Data on employment by sector comes from the
Annual Business Inquiry (ABI) which is a workplace-based survey
of the number of jobs held by employees. Employee jobs exclude
the self-employed, government-supported trainees and HM Forces.
2004 is the most recent year for which ABI data is available.
HOMES IN
MULTIPLE OCCUPATION
Q. What is the impact of the Labour Force
Survey tending not to use data from "housing multiple-occupancy,
which are more prevalent in coastal towns" (Q379)?
The Labour Force Survey (LFS)/Annual Population
Survey sampling frame covers 97% of private households in Great
Britain. The exclusion of most communal establishments (CEs),
including homes in multiple occupation (HMOs), from the LFS sampling
and population weighting means that the LFS estimates of employment
nationally probably omit about 150,000 people who are employed
but live in CEs, and about 30,000 who are "unemployed"
(although inconsistencies between the Census definition and the
LFS's ILO definition make it difficult to quantify this accurately).
One of the most important aspects of the LFS
design is that it must meet Eurostat's requirements, as the LFS
is conducted under Regulation. Eurostat's requirements are for
results for private households only, recognising that "for
technical and methodological reasons it is not possible... to
include the population living in collective households" (Eurostat,
EU LFS Methods and Definitions 1996, p 11).
The LFS is not alone in excluding CEs from its
sampling frame; the Expenditure and Food Survey, the Family Resources
Survey, the General Household Survey and the Survey of English
Housing also do not sample from CEs. The decennial Population
Census is the best source of data for people living in communal
establishments, including HMOs.
INCAPACITY BENEFIT
IN COASTAL
TOWNS
Q. Evidence has been provided by the DWP
on the large number of people claiming incapacity benefit in coastal
towns. Does the department know what proportion of these people
were claiming it prior to moving to a coastal town, and if so,
what action is being taken to address this?
Of the 119,550 Incapacity Benefit claimants
in the coastal towns studied, 4,660 had recently moved to the
coastal town. This represents 3.9% of the total Incapacity Benefit
claimants in coastal towns. There is no evidence to suggest any
additional movement of Incapacity Benefit claimants to coastal
towns than elsewhere in the UK. As such, there is no specific
policy in place to offer any additional support or intervention
to these claimants.
COASTAL TOWN
DATA
The following tables and charts illustrate some
aspects of the labour market in coastal towns.
— Table 1 looks at the employment rates
in 17 coastal towns, while Table 2 shows the number of Jobcentre
Plus vacancies there in the past three years.
— Charts 1a and 1b compare the breakdown
of jobs by employment status for coastal towns and for England
as a whole; Charts 2a and 2b show a breakdown of temporary employment
by type of temporary work.
— Tables 3 and 4 show the number and
per cent respectively of jobs in tourism in coastal towns, with
comparison figures for England and Great Britain.
— Charts 3-4 look at the jobs by sector
in both coastal towns and England overall, first in 1998 and later
in 2004.
— Table 5 looks at the number of working
age claimants who claimed Incapacity Benefit/Severe Disability
Allowance (IB/SDA) in a non-coastal town in February 2005, who
then subsequently moved to a coastal town by February 2006 and
were still claiming IB/SDA.
Table 1
EMPLOYMENT RATES IN COASTAL TOWNS
| 1999-2000 | 2000-01
| 2001-02 | 2002-03 | 2003-04
| APS04 | APS05 |
| Worthing | 82.2 | 82.4
| 78.2 | 74.2 | 85.1
| 84.7 | 81.4 |
| Weymouth and Portland | 74.3
| 79.0 | 73.9 | 80.2
| 76.9 | 78.3 | 78.8
|
| Poole | 80.5 | 78.1
| 79.7 | 81 | 79.5
| 78.5 | 77.2 |
| Eastbourne | 77.9 | 74.7
| 75.0 | 76.9 | 75.4
| 75.2 | 77.0 |
| Isle of Wight | 70.8 | 70.7
| 72.3 | 73.8 | 75.1
| 76.3 | 76.9 |
| Scarborough | 71.9 | 72.8
| 72.6 | 69.5 | 70.3
| 72.2 | 76.8 |
| Bournemouth | 74.8 | 73.8
| 74.4 | 76.4 | 77.2
| 75.2 | 76.7 |
| Southend-on-Sea | 78.1 |
73.0 | 74.2 | 76.1
| 76.3 | 76.8 | 75.3
|
| Thanet | 69.7 | 74.1
| 74.0 | 65.7 | 62.4
| 74.6 | 74.9 |
| Dover | 73.9 | 69.7
| 77.5 | 78.0 | 73.1
| 73.8 | 74.8 |
| Portsmouth | 71.5 | 73.6
| 75.1 | 79.7 | 77.7
| 72.3 | 74.2 |
| Hastings | 79.6 | 73.8
| 69.6 | 70.3 | 69.8
| 72.0 | 73.1 |
| Torbay | 73.2 | 73.6
| 73.0 | 72.5 | 73.7
| 72.3 | 73.0 |
| Brighton and Hove | 75.7 |
71.3 | 75.1 | 76.8
| 78.1 | 76.1 | 72.6
|
| Plymouth | 71.7 | 72.9
| 73.8 | 72.1 | 73.3
| 74.0 | 71.8 |
| Blackpool | 69.4 | 69.5
| 74.2 | 71.7 | 70
| 71.6 | 71.4 |
| Great Yarmouth | 68.8 | 73.2
| 66.7 | 67 | 72.5
| 70.7 | 69.6 |
| Coastal Towns | 73.9
| 73.5 | 74.3 |
74.4 | 74.7 | 74.9
| 74.6 |
| England | 74.6% | 75.2%
| 75.1% | 75.0% | 75.0%
| 75.1% | 75.1% |
| Great Britain | 74.2% | 74.7%
| 74.6% | 74.6% | 74.8%
| 75.0% | 74.7% |
Source: Nomis; Local Area Labour Force Survey and Annual
Population Survey. Labour Force Survey 4-quarter average (England
and Great Britain).
Table 2
JOBCENTRE PLUS VACANCIES (000s)
| 2004 | 2005
| 2006 |
| Blackpool | 931 | 1,204
| 1,057 |
| Bournemouth | 748 | 888
| 1,435 |
| Plymouth | 1,267 | 1,250
| 1,368 |
| Southend-on-Sea | 835 |
675 | 1,241 |
| Brighton and Hove | 919 |
995 | 1,153 |
| Portsmouth | 958 | 964
| 1,045 |
| Torbay | 794 | 751
| 774 |
| Poole | 719 | 655
| 713 |
| Thanet | 465 | 873
| 696 |
| Scarborough | 512 | 573
| 622 |
| Great Yarmouth | 328 | 510
| 561 |
| Dover | 442 | 419
| 561 |
| Eastbourne | 442 | 368
| 400 |
| Worthing | 257 | 405
| 348 |
| Isle of Wight | 373 | 346
| 338 |
| Hastings | 217 | 323
| 257 |
| Weymouth and Portland | 235
| 282 | 186 |
Source: Jobcentre Plus Vacancy Data; Nomis.
CHART 1: EMPLOYMENT
BY JOB
STATUS
(a) Coastal Towns
(b) England
CHART 2: TEMPORARY
EMPLOYMENT BREAKDOWN
(a) Coastal Towns
(b) England
Table 3
NUMBER OF JOBS IN TOURISM
| 1999 | 2000
| 2001 | 2002 | 2003
| 2004 |
| Brighton and Hove | 12,094 |
13,106 | 13,103 | 14,865
| 14,031 | 15,763 |
| Blackpool | 10,105 | 11,171
| 8,951 | 9,534 | 9,884
| 11,250 |
| Portsmouth | 7,387 | 8,791
| 8,110 | 9,343 | 9,173
| 9,986 |
| Torbay | 6,730 | 6,601
| 7,793 | 7,342 | 7,513
| 9,253 |
| Plymouth | 6,300 | 6,301
| 6,710 | 6,969 | 7,408
| 8,785 |
| Bournemouth | 9,032 | 9,561
| 9,149 | 10,564 | 10,710
| 8,724 |
| Isle of Wight | 6,361 |
6,809 | 6,395 | 11,691
| 5,626 | 8,183 |
| Scarborough | 6,803 | 6,757
| 7,904 | 7,441 | 7,042
| 7,159 |
| Great Yarmouth | 4,489 |
4,582 | 5,413 | 5,344
| 5,513 | 5,404 |
| Southend-on-Sea | 5,559 |
7,217 | 5,423 | 4,818
| 5,524 | 4,833 |
| Poole | 4,218 | 4,498
| 4,283 | 5,215 | 5,485
| 4,471 |
| Eastbourne | 3,576 | 3,820
| 3,425 | 3,903 | 3,436
| 3,950 |
| Thanet | 2,924 | 3,086
| 4,442 | 4,161 | 4,277
| 3,812 |
| Dover | 2,826 | 2,859
| 3,672 | 3,606 | 3,355
| 3,068 |
| Worthing | 3,022 | 2,667
| 2,933 | 2,530 | 2,681
| 2,825 |
| Weymouth and Portland | 2,690
| 2,939 | 2,895 | 3,215
| 3,117 | 2,733 |
| Hastings | 1,905 | 2,118
| 1,805 | 2,232 | 2,174
| 2,260 |
| Coastal Towns | 96,022
| 102,882 | 102,407 |
112,773 | 106,948 | 112,458
|
| England | 1,636,631 |
1,655,391 | 1,695,262 |
1,767,073 | 1,791,173 |
1,837,046 |
| Great Britain | 1,905,491
| 1,932,812 | 1,979,481
| 2,053,324 | 2,080,379
| 2,141,824 |
Source: Nomis—Annual Business Inquiry Employee Analysis.
Table 4
PERCENT OF JOBS IN TOURISM
| 1999 | 2000
| 2001 | 2002 | 2003
| 2004 |
| Blackpool | 16.7 | 18.1
| 14.6 | 15.3 | 17.7
| 19.0 |
| Torbay | 15.4 | 14.8
| 16.2 | 16.7 | 16.6
| 18.8 |
| Scarborough | 17.1 | 17.1
| 19.1 | 18.3 | 17.6
| 18.0 |
| Isle of Wight | 15.2 | 14.4
| 13.3 | 22.7 | 11.2
| 17.4 |
| Great Yarmouth | 14.2 | 14.4
| 15.4 | 15.4 | 15.5
| 15.3 |
| Weymouth and Portland | 16.7
| 15.1 | 16.7 | 17.6
| 17.1 | 15.1 |
| Brighton and Hove | 10.9 |
11.4 | 11.3 | 12.6
| 12.1 | 13.4 |
| Bournemouth | 13.2 | 13.2
| 12.7 | 14.1 | 14.0
| 11.7 |
| Eastbourne | 10.5 | 10.4
| 9.5 | 11.0 | 9.4
| 10.4 |
| Thanet | 8.6 | 9.5
| 11.6 | 11.2 | 11.7
| 10.0 |
| Portsmouth | 7.6 | 8.8
| 8.0 | 9.1 | 9.3
| 9.7 |
| Plymouth | 6.3 | 6.4
| 6.4 | 6.8 | 7.2
| 8.4 |
| Dover | 7.4 | 8.0
| 9.5 | 9.0 | 8.6
| 7.9 |
| Hastings | 6.8 | 7.3
| 6.3 | 7.7 | 7.4
| 7.5 |
| Southend-on-Sea | 9.2 | 10.2
| 8.4 | 7.2 | 8.4
| 7.5 |
| Poole | 6.7 | 7.1
| 6.7 | 8.7 | 8.7
| 7.0 |
| Worthing | 6.4 | 5.9
| 6.3 | 5.4 | 5.9
| 6.3 |
| Coastal Towns | 10.5 |
10.9 | 10.6 | 11.7
| 11.2 | 11.6 |
| England | 7.6 | 7.6
| 7.7 | 8.0 | 8.0
| 8.2 |
| Great Britain | 7.7 |
7.7 | 7.8 | 8.0
| 8.1 | 8.2 |
Source: Nomis—Annual Business Inquiry Employee Analysis.
CHART 3: JOBS
BY SECTOR
1998
(a) Coastal Towns
Source: Nomis—Annual Business Inquiry Employee Analysis.
(b) England
Source: Nomis—Annual Business Inquiry Employee Analysis.
CHART 4: JOBS
BY SECTOR
2004
(a) Coastal Towns
Source: Nomis—Annual Business Inquiry Employee Analysis.
(b) England
Source: Nomis—Annual Business Inquiry Employee Analysis.
Table 5
INCAPACITY BENEFIT CLAIMANTS
Number of Working Age claimants who claimed Incapacity Benefit/Severe
Disability Allowance (IB/SDA) in a non-coastal town in February
2005, who then subsequently moved to the following coastal towns
by February 2006 and were still claiming IB/SDA.
| Coastal Town | WA IB
Claimants in
Feb 2006
| Claimed IB in a
non- coastal town
in Feb 2005
| As a proportion of
those claiming in
Feb 2006
|
| Blackpool | 11,380 | 650
| 5.7% |
| Bournemouth | 8,880 | 370
| 4.2% |
| Brighton and Hove | 12,520 |
370 | 3.0% |
| Dover | 4,630 | 120
| 2.6% |
| Eastbourne | 4,170 | 220
| 5.3% |
| Great Yarmouth | 5,080 |
210 | 4.1% |
| Hastings | 5,600 | 260
| 4.6% |
| Isle of Wight | 6,350 | 180
| 2.8% |
| Plymouth | 14,160 | 360
| 2.5% |
| Poole | 4,870 | 140
| 2.9% |
| Portsmouth | 7,750 | 280
| 3.6% |
| Scarborough | 5,400 | 240
| 4.4% |
| Southend-on-Sea | 7,210 |
320 | 4.4% |
| Thanet | 6,750 | 250
| 3.7% |
| Torbay | 7,580 | 350
| 4.6% |
| Weymouth and Portland | 3,400
| 170 | 5.0% |
| Worthing | 3,820 | 170
| 4.5% |
| Total | 119,550
| 4,660 | 3.9%
|
Source: DWP Information Directorate 100% WPLS.
Notes:
1. Figures are rounded to the nearest 10. Totals may not sum
due to rounding.
|
