Employment rate - The Herefordshire Partnership

Employment rate

The employment rate is a key indicator for tracking how the economy is performing. The employment rate gives the percentage of working age population (females 16-59 years and males 16-64 years) in employment (full-time, part time and self-employed). The data is obtained from the Annual Population Survey (APS - see Reference section 11), with the financial year 04-05 being the first year of data. There has been no significant change¹ in Herefordshire's employment rate over the last four years (chart 1).

Chart 1. Employment rate for working age population

Source - Annual Population Survey (ONS Crown copyright)

Herefordshire, in general, has a high employment rate, 78% in 07-08, compared to the West Midlands (72%) and nationally (75%). Most of Herefordshire's English neighbours have similar high levels of employment.

 

Gender

Looking at differences in the employment rate between males and females, nationally males have a higher employment rate. This is also the case for Herefordshire: in 07-08 the employment rate for males was 83% compared to 73% for females. In fact the gap between the male/female employment rate seems to be increasing in Herefordshire. In 2004-05, the male employment rate was 5 percentage points higher than the female rate, by 2007-08 this gap had increased to 9 percentage points.

The proportion of workers in Herefordshire that work full time has in the past (2004-06) been lower than for the West Midlands and England. However between 2006 and 2008 data from the APS suggests that there is no significant difference.

Data from the Annual Business Inquiry (ABI) can also be used to examine different patterns of work between males and females (chart 2). The proportion of females that work full time hours (49%) is low compared to males (84%). This proportion is also low when compared to England as a whole (54%).

Chart 2. Proportion of males and females in employment that work full-time, 2007-08

Source: Annual Business Inquiry (ONS Crown copyright)

 

1. See reference section for more information on the APS, statistical significance and confidence intervals. Appendix (reference section 11 & 53).