RECENT DEVELOPMENTS IN MINISTRY OF LABOUR STATISTICS*
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8543.1963.tb00977.x |
| Published date | 01 June 1963 |
| Date | 01 June 1963 |
RECENT DEVELOPMENTS IN MINISTRY OF LABOUR
STATISTICS+
THE
Ministry of Labour in the last year or two has been reviewing
all its main statistics of employment, unemployment and earnings with
a view
to
improving them. This article outlines the main developments
that are taking place in the collection and presentation of these statis-
tics. It does not deal with recent developments in the method
of
construction of the Index
of
Retail Prices,' in the continuous Family
Expenditure Enquiry and in the estimation
of
normal seasonal fluctua-
tions in unemployment and unfilled vacancies.a The aim of the
Ministry is to present more meaningful statistics more speedily. In all
cases the cost
of
production
of
statistics, both to the employer and to
the Government, is weighed against the value of the additional informa-
tion to the Government and to others as a tool of economic policy and
of research.
Esta
b
1
is
hed
stat
is
t
ics
of
earnings
Up
to
1963
the Ministry
of
Labour published two established series
of
statistics
of
earnings;
a
six-monthly enquiry into the earnings
of
manual wage-earners and an annual enquiry into the earnings of
salaried administrative, technical and clerical workers. The series
relating to manual workers covers all manufacturing industries, other
production industries, public administration, part
of
transport and
some miscellaneous services. The information collected directly
by
the
Ministry is supplemented by information from other sources about
earnings in agriculture, coal-mining, nationalized transport and the
docks. The Ministry's figures are based on returns furnished voluntar-
ily
by
nearly
60,000
establishments employing about
7,000,000
manual
workers- about
70
per cent. of all manual workers in the industries and
services in the United Kingdom covered
by
the enquiry. The returns
show for
a
particular week the number
of
manual wage-earners actually
at work, their aggregate earnings and the total number of man-hours
worked; this information is given separately for men, boys, women
working full-time, women working part-time and girls. From this the
Ministry calculate average weekly earnings, average hours worked and
average hourly earnings
by
industry for each group of workers.
From time to time the Ministry
has
obtained additional information
about the earnings of manual workers. Employers are asked every
*This article has been specially contributed by the Ministry
of
La'bour.
1
See Cost
of
Living Advisory Committee's
Report on Revision
of
the
Zndex
of
Retail
Prices
(Cmnd. 1657) March
1962.
2
Ministry
of
Labour Gazette,
March 1960.
499
To continue reading
Request your trial