Updated 28 September 2012
Gap between the employment rates for disabled people and the overall population technical description
| Short title | Gap between the employment rates for disabled people and the overall population |
|---|---|
| Technical definition | The indicator measures the difference in the employment rates between the employment rate for disabled people, as defined the Equality Act (EA), and the overall population. This uses the Office for National Statistics Headline Rate definition of the employment rate, ie between the ages of 16 and 64 for both males and females. Data are not seasonally adjusted and therefore year on year comparisons only. (1) Calculate the employment rate for disabled people, as defined by the Equality Act (EA) between ages 16 and 64. This is done by dividing number of EA disabled people in the age range who are in employment by the total number of EA disabled people in this age range. (2) Calculate the employment rate for all people between the ages of 16 and 64, by dividing the number of people in this age range who are in employment by the total number of people in this age range. (3) Take the difference, in percentage points between the above calculations. |
| Rationale | Transparency – This data allows DWP to monitor progress towards employment equality for disabled people and allows the public to assess how well the government is performing against the stated commitments. Fairness – Forms part of the coalition's government vision for DWP to promote high levels of employment by helping people who are out of work including those in disadvantaged groups to move into work. Economic Impact – Economical benefits to having people off benefits and into work. Important in terms of equality that disabled people benefit equally from an improving economy and not disproportionally from an economic downturn. SRP5 – Enable disabled people to fulfil their potential |
| Formula | Overall employment rate: (number of people in employment between 16 and 64 / number of people between 16 and 64) MINUS… Employment rate for DDA disabled people: (number of DDA disabled people in employment between 16 and 64 / number of DDA people between 16 and 64) Worked Example: Overall employment rate: 27.686 million / 38.886 million = 71.2% Employment rate for DDA disabled: 3.242 million / 7.026 million = 46.1% Gap between the employment rates for disabled people and the overall population: 71.2% - 46.1% = 25.1 percentage points |
| Start date | This data is taken from the Labour Force Survey though this specific data is not routinely published. It is circulated internally to monitor performance and released ad hoc into the public domain as part of ministerial briefings, PQ's etc |
| Good performance | A decrease of more than 1.4 percentage points would show an improvement (a change of less than 1.4 percentage points would not be statistically significant) but economic conditions will also need to be taken into account, particularly as recent research evidence indicates that employment prospects for disabled people are less sensitive to economic conditions than the overall population. This may mean that as the economy improves and overall employment rates increase, the gap between the disabled and the overall employment rates will increase, which would represent a decline in this indicator. Data are not seasonally adjusted and so only year on year comparisons are meaningful. |
| Behavioural impact | Unlikely to have an impact. This is a high level measure and as such relatively small scale activities such as cherry-picking or parking of customers on employment programmes would be unlikely to have a demonstrable impact on the measure. |
| Comparability | The indicator is derived from the Labour Force Survey (LFS). The LFS is used to produce the UK Government’s official statistics on employment and unemployment, as per the International Labour Organisation (ILO) definitions and as such would be comparable internationally. Impact indicator 8 is produced using the same methodology. The disability indicator used in the LFS aligns with the Equality Act definition of disability, which in turns closely aligns with, although may not be strictly identical to, the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. On the less positive side, there may be issues of comparability in that the definition of Working Age will vary between countries which in turn will lead to variability in the coverage of different countries’ employment rate measures. The definition of Working Age used for indicator 8 is 16-64 for men and women. |
| Collection frequency | Quarterly |
| Time lag | Available approximately 6 weeks after the end of the reference quarter period |
| Data source (which data collection it comes from) | Labour Force Survey - with analysis by DWP |
| Type of data (Whether it is an official statistic, national statistic, survey, MI ) | Survey |
| Robustness and data limitations | There is no published data for the confidence intervals around the indicator. However, the Department has estimated that the confidence interval for a single quarterly estimate of the indicator is +/- 1.0%. The confidence interval for a year-on-year change is wider, because it is based on two independent estimates and so subject to two “sources of uncertainty”. The confidence interval for a year on year change is approx +/- 1.4 %.
The indicator is based on the same data source and definitions as National Statistics on employment among disabled people (Table A08 Labour Market Statistics (Office for national Statistics), although it currently focuses on a slightly different age group. The indicator is quality assured against the National Statistics estimates. The quality of National Statistics products is assessed on a regular basis by the independent UK Statistics Authority. Along with other users, DWP are represented on groups that monitor the quality and relevance of the underlying data (Labour Force Survey Steering Group) and the related National Statistics outputs (Labour Market Statistics Theme Group). The analysis is based on a random sample of around 45,000 households each quarter, used for a wide range of National Statistics. The definition of “working age” recently changed to reflect the equalisation of state pension age. The new impact indicator will be based on the Office for National Statistics new headline rate, which includes all people aged 16 to 64. Data are not available on the same basis prior to 2010, due to changes in reporting behaviour and the age groups asked these questions in the survey. The fit between the data and the indicator is very good. The LFS is used by ONS to produce National Statistics on GB employment and unemployment rates that conform to International Labour Organisation (ILO) standards. The LFS also contains disability data that very closely aligns with the Disability Discrimination Act definition of disability. Estimates of disability from the Labour Force Survey for 2010 onwards should not be compared directly with earlier years. There was a change in the reporting behaviour of survey respondents at the start of 2010, mainly reflecting a change in the wording of the survey questionnaire, which is believed to result in more accurate estimates. This will be reflected in future analyses of economic activity of disabled people published by the Office for National Statistics. |
| Collecting organisation | The Office for National Statistics |
| Return format | Unit and format of measurement: Volumes (millions) and expressed in percentage terms |
| Geographical coverage | National (GB). Government office region breakdown has been considered but analysis showed that, due to relatively small sample sizes, confidence intervals were too wide to enable robust time series analysis or comparisons between regions. |
| How indicator can be broken down | The viability of additional breakdowns would have to be assessed on a case-by-case basis. Sample sizes are too small to enable regional analysis but there may be scope for breakdowns such as gender and broad age groups. |
| Further guidance | Any other relevant information It is widely accepted there is a strong connection between the state of the economy and employment rates and this would be expected to have an effect on both of the employment rates used to measure this gap. There are many other factors that can also affect employment rates including the policies of DWP, other government departments, the wider public sector and the third sector. It would not be possible to disentangle the numerous effects and accurately quantify the precise impact any given factor has on employment rates. For this reason we cannot make the direct, provable casual link between the wide range of specific policies included in the DWP Spending Review settlement and a high level economic measure such as the employment rate. Currently published in Excel. |
