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Social Aspects of Employment: Data for Policy Research*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2009

Catherine Hakim
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Abstract

The population census provides a somewhat neglected and under-utilized source of statistical information. Data on the labour force from household censuses and surveys are of particular interest for policy research on the social aspects of employment. The characteristics of these data sources are outlined, and their potential for secondary analysis is explored with particular reference to census statistics. The census provides a useful source for studies of the changing definitions of ‘work’, ‘occupation’ and ‘employment’; the labour force participation profiles of individuals and families; the unemployed (both registered and unregistered); occupational segregation on the basis of sex or other factors; the separation of home and work-place and the characteristics of homeworkers; labour force minorities such as the self-employed and family workers; the labour force characteristics of ethnic minorities; qualified manpower; and the determinants of earnings. Recent developments have improved access to household census and survey data for researchers outside the government.

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Articles
Information
Journal of Social Policy , Volume 9 , Issue 1 , January 1980 , pp. 77 - 98
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1980

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References

1 Labour force studies commissioned by government departments are usually carried out by the Office of Population Censuses and Surveys (OPCS) or other independent research institutes. See for example Hunt, Audrey, A Survey of Women's Employment, HMSO, London, 1968Google Scholar; and Daniel, W. W., A National Survey of the Unemployed, Political and Economic Planning (PEP), London, 1974.Google Scholar

2 For a discussion of this problem, see Bulmer, Martin, ‘Why Don't Sociologists Make More Use of Official Statistics?’, Sociology, forthcoming.Google Scholar

3 Statistics from the unemployment register are published regularly in the Department of Employment Gazette. To date two databases have been derived from the register, the Characteristics of the Unemployed databases compiled for a sample of people on the register in 1973 and 1976. Once the unemployment register has been computerized (the JUVOS system, to be completed in the mid-1980s) the extraction of databases for statistical analysis will be facilitated.

4 For descriptions of the development of the modern census as a core social database and the applications of census data in research and government, see Benjamin, B., The Population Census, Heinemann, London, 1970Google Scholar; and Hakim, C., ‘The Population Census and its By-Products: Databases for Research’, International Social Science Journal, 31:2 (1979), 343–52.Google Scholar

5 This was a postal survey of a 1 per cent national sample of the population. See OPCS, 1971 Census Income Follow-Up Survey, Studies in Medical and Population Subjects no. 38, HMSO, London, 1978Google Scholar; Banfield, Faith, ‘1971 Census: Voluntary Survey on Income’, Population Trends, 12 (1978), 18–21.Google Scholar

6 OPCS, 1971Google ScholarCensus Income Follow-Up Survey, pp. 16–20.Google Scholar

7 The Qualified Manpower Follow-Up Survey consisted of postal surveys of small samples of people identified in the 1971 Census as having higher qualifications or being in professional and managerial jobs. Some results of the survey are reported in ‘Employment of the Highly Qualified 1971–1986’, Department of Employment Gazette, 86:5 (1978), 351–9.Google Scholar A fuller report on this follow-up survey will be published in due course by the OPCS. For a discussion of the use of the census as a sampling frame for surveys that are linked to the census or for surveys that are otherwise quite unrelated to the census, and a discussion of the confidentiality constraints on this application, see Hakim, C., ‘Census Confidentiality in Britain’, in Bulmer, Martin (ed.), Censuses, Surveys and Privacy, Macmillan, London, 1979, pp. 132–57Google Scholar; and Hakim, , ‘The Population Census and its By-Products’.Google Scholar The census is also used in the Longitudinal Study (1 per cent) which will eventually provide statistics on occupational mobility over a ten-year period, though few statistics are as yet available from this source. See OPCS, Cohort Studies: New Developments, Studies on Medical and Population Subjects no. 25, HMSO, London, 1973Google Scholar; and Goldblatt, Peter and Fox, John, ‘Household Mortality from the OPCS Longitudinal Study’, Population Trends, 14 (1978), 20–8.Google Scholar

8 For further information on the topics included in population censuses, see Benjamin, , The Population Census; OPCS, Guide to Census Reports, Great Britain: 1801–1966, HMSO, London, 1977Google Scholar; and 1981 Census of Population, Cmnd 7146, HMSO, London, 1978.Google Scholar

9 The applications of census Small Area Statistics in social area analyses are reviewed in Hakim, C., Social and Community Indicators from the Census, Occasional Paper no. 5, OPCS, London, 1978Google Scholar; and Hakim, C., Census-Based Area Profiles, Occasional Paper no. 2, OPCS, London, 1977.Google Scholar But see in particular Holtermann, S., ‘Areas of Urban Deprivation in Great Britain: An Analysis of 1971 Census Data’, in Social Trends, no. 6, Central Statistical Office, HMSO, London, 1975, pp. 33–47Google Scholar; Webber, R. J., Liverpool Social Area Study, Planning Research Applications Group (PRAG) Technical Paper 14, Centre for Environmental Studies, London, 1975Google Scholar; and Webber, R. J., The National Classification of Residential Neighbourhoods: An Introduction to the Classification of Wards and Parishes, PRAG Technical Paper 23, Centre for Environmental Studies, London, 1977.Google Scholar

1 The Qualified Manpower Follow-up Survey covered people who, at the time of the 1971 Census, fell into one of five groups: (a) qualified people aged from eighteen to twenty-nine; (b) qualified people aged thirty or over in employment; (c) qualified married women aged from thirty to fifty-nine not working; (d) non-qualified people aged from eighteen to twenty-nine working in managerial or professional occupations (OPCS Occupation Orders 24 and 25); and (e) non-qualified people aged thirty or over working in managerial or professional occupations (Occupation Orders 24 and 25).

2 Results are grossed up to a 100 per cent response rate for the follow-up survey on the basis of census information for non-respondents, and are thus corrected for differential non-response.

3 Results are weighted for differential sampling, with no adjustments made for differential response.

4 Information on qualifications obtained at any age for all persons aged from fifteen to seventy and for those aged seventy or over who were still working.

10 see Buxton, N. K. and Mackay, D. I., British Employment Statistics: A Guide to Sources and Methods, Basil Blackwell, Oxford, 1977Google Scholar; Price, R. and Bain, G. S., ‘Union Growth Revisited: 1948–1974 in Perspective’, British Journal of Industrial Relations, 14:3 (1976), 339–55Google Scholar; Booth, C., ‘Occupations of the People in the United Kingdom 1801–1881’, Journal of the Royal Statistical Society, 49:2 (1886), 314–44Google Scholar; Banks, J. A., ‘The Social Structure of Nineteenth Century England as Seen Through the Census’, in Lawton, Richard (ed.), The Census and Social Structure, Frank Cass, London, 1978, pp. 179–223Google Scholar; and Department of Employment and Productivity, British Labour Statistics: Historical Abstract 1886–1968, HMSO, London, 1971.Google Scholar

11 The Annual Census of Employment replaced the annual series of employment statistics based on quarterly counts of national insurance cards. Statistics from these administrative records are available for 1948–71.

12 see Hakim, C., Census Confidentiality, Microdata, and Census Analysis, Occasional Paper no. 3, OPCS, London, 1978Google Scholar; Flaherty, David H., Privacy and Government Databanks: An International Perspective, Mansell, London, 1979Google Scholar; and Flaherty, David H., ‘Final Report of the Bellagio Conference on Privacy, Confidentiality, and the Use of Government Microdata for Research and Statistical Purposes’, Journal of the Royal Statistical Society, Series A, 141:3 (1978), 401–5.Google Scholar

13 For a discussion of the reasons for this, see Martin Bulmer, ‘Why Don't Sociologists Make More Use of Official Statistics?’.

14 ‘Labour Force Survey’, Population Trends, 7 (1977), 15–17Google Scholar; OPCS, Labour Force Survey, HMSO, London, 1979Google Scholar; ‘Family Expenditure: A Plain Man's Guide to the Family Expenditure Survey’, Department of Employment Gazette, 86:2 (1978), 137–47Google Scholar; Department of Employment, Family Expenditure Survey 1977, HMSO, London, 1978Google Scholar; and OPCS, Social Survey Division, The General Household Survey: Introductory Report, SS 457, HMSO, London, 1973.Google Scholar

15 For just one example, see Field, Frank, The Conscript Army, Routledge and Kegan Paul, London, 1977, p. 11.Google Scholar

1 There was also the 1966 Sample Census.

2 In addition, some 58,000 non-private institutions (hotels, prisons, hospitals and other institutions) are covered by the census.

3 Results for respondents in households are grossed up to mid-year population estimates for the relevant year for the United Kingdom, Great Britain and the regions and adjusted to account for the population in non-private institutions (not covered by the survey) and to account for non-response among respondents in households.

4 Subject to certain constraints, microdata are also available from the Social Science Research Council Survey Archive, although there is an embargo on access for a number of years after the survey was taken. In the spring of 1979 the Archive held General Household Survey microdata for 1971–4 and Family Expenditure Survey microdata for 1968–75.

16 See SSRC Survey Archive, Data Catalogue, University of Essex, 1979.Google ScholarPubMed

17 This has been considered – see ‘Planning for the 1981 Census of Population’, Population Trends, 10 (1977), 9.Google Scholar

18 For example the census and other sources are used extensively to compile labour force projections in conjunction with projections of output and productivity. These are regularly published in the Department of Employment Gazette.

19 Bulmer, Martin, ‘Social Science Research and Policy-Making in Britain’, in Bulmer, Martin (ed.), Social Policy Research, Macmillan, London, 1978, pp. 3–43.Google Scholar

20 The potential for secondary analysis is perhaps best illustrated by the longest-standing survey, the Family Expenditure Survey, which has now run continuously for over twenty years. Its primary purpose is to provide up-to-date weights for the Retail Price Index, as is described in ‘The Family Expenditure Survey and Annual Revision of the Weights for the Retail Price Indices’, Department of Employment Gazette, 87:3 (1979), 236–40.Google Scholar But the Family Expenditure Survey is increasingly used as a source of data for social research, for example for studying the income distributional effects of changes in the benefit system or changes in taxes; trends in household composition and size, and the implications which they have for the provision of various services; and the resources and needs of two-parent and one-parent families. See for example Howe, J. R., Two Parent Families, Statistical Report Series no. 14, Department of Health and Social Security, HMSO, London, 1971Google Scholar; and Fiegehen, G. C., Lansley, P. S. and Smith, A. D., Poverty and Progress in Britain 1953–1973, Cambridge University Press, London, 1977.Google Scholar A similar contrast can be made between the general reports on the General Household Survey results for each year and secondary analyses of its data, as is illustrated by the work of Layard and his colleagues at the Centre for Labour Economics, London School of Economics (LSE). See for example Layard, R., Piachaud, D. and Stewart, M., The Causes of Poverty, Background Paper no. 5, Royal Commission on the Distribution of Income and Wealth, HMSO, London, 1978Google Scholar; and Nickell, S., ‘The Effect of Unemployment and Related Benefits on the Duration of Unemployment’, Discussion Paper no. 8. Centre for Labour Economics, LSE, 1977.Google Scholar

21 Hakim, C., ‘Census Reports as Documentary Evidence’, paper presented to the Conference of the British Sociological Association (BSA) and the SSRC on Methodology and Techniques of Sociology, held at the University of Lancaster, 01 1979.Google Scholar

22 Davies, C., ‘The Use of Census Data in Occupational Sociology: A Blend of Historical and Sociological Approaches’, paper presented to the BSA-SSRC Conference on Methodology and Techniques of Sociology, held at the University of Lancaster, 01 1979.Google Scholar

23 The General Household Survey showed that by 1976 exactly half of all wives were working. Projected economic activity rates for women suggest that by 1986 some 53 percent of all women and 55 per cent of married women will be economically active. The rates are much higher if women aged sixty or over are excluded. See ‘New Projections of Future Labour Force’, Department of Employment Gazette, 85:6 (1977), 587–92.Google Scholar

24 There is evidence that family characteristics are more powerful predictors of the labour force participation of women than are personal characteristics. For example an analysis of 1974 General Household Survey data showed that wives whose husbands were unemployed were 33 per cent more likely to be out of the labour force. The impact of this factor was superseded only by that of young children in the home, and was far stronger than the impact of other factors such as age, illness and the wife's wage when she was working. see Layard, R., Greenhalgh, C. and Zabalza, A., ‘Married Women's Participation and Hours’, Discussion Paper no. 29, Centre for Labour Economics, LSE, 1978.Google Scholar Family characteristics are also a determinant of the labour force behaviour of men. see Daniel, W. W. and Stilgoe, E., Where are They Now?: A Follow-Up Study of the Unemployed, PEP, London, 1977, pp. 30–45.Google Scholar

25 See Land, Hilary, ‘Women: Supporters or Supported?’, in Barker, D. L. and Allen, S. (eds), Sexual Divisions and Society: Process and Change, Tavistock Publications, London, 1976, pp. 108–32Google Scholar; Land, Hilary, ‘Who Cares for the Family?’, Journal of Social Policy, 7:3 (1978), 257–84Google Scholar; and Land, Hilary, ‘The Myth of the Male Breadwinner’, New Society, 34:679 (1975). 71–3.Google Scholar

26 See Rodgers, Barbara N., ‘Family Policy in France’, Journal of Social Policy, 4:2 (1975), 113–28.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

27 Land, , ‘Who Cares for the Family?’.Google Scholar

28 Hakim, , ‘Census Reports as Documentary Evidence’.Google Scholar

29 Land, , ‘Who Cares for the Family?’.Google Scholar

30 The New Earnings Survey provides some limited longitudinal data, by virtue of the sampling procedures used.

31 Hakim, C., Occupational Segregation, Research Paper no. 9, Department of Employment, London, 1979.Google Scholar

32 Compared with figures from the unemployment register, the 1971 Census showed that a small number of men and a larger number of women were seeking work but were not registered as unemployed. The problems of reconciling statistics on unemployment derived from administrative records and those derived from household censuses and surveys are discussed in Unemployment Statistics: Report of an Interdepartmental Working Party, Cmnd 5157, HMSO, London, 1972Google Scholar; and ‘The Unregistered Unemployed in Great Britain’, Department of Employment Gazette, 84:12 (1976), 1,331–6.Google Scholar In some EEC and OECD countries (for example France, Italy and the United States) the official figures for unemployment are taken from sample surveys. A primary reason for the existence of the Labour Force Survey is that it provides statistics on the size and structure of the labour force on a comparable basis across the EEC. See ‘Labour Force Survey’ (Population Trends, no. 7); and ‘International Unemployment Statistics’, Department of Employment Gazette, 84:7 (1976), 710–15.Google Scholar

33 See for example Louie Burghes, ‘Who are the Unemployed?’, in Field, op. cit. pp. 13–27; and ‘The Unregistered Unemployed in Great Britain’ (Department of Employment Gazette, 84:12).Google Scholar

34 The 1977 Labour Force Survey, for example, provides data on the degree of overlap between a person's ‘usual’ occupation and his current occupation, and between a person's main occupation and his second occupation (where two jobs are held concurrently).

35 See Daniel and Stilgoe, op. cit.; and Hakim, , Occupational Segregation.Google Scholar

36 Equal Opportunities Commission, Second Annual Report 1977, HMSO, London, 1978, pp. 3–4 and 9.Google Scholar

37 Hakim, C., ‘Sexual Divisions within the Labour Force: Occupational Segregation’, Department of Employment Gazette, 86:11 (1978), 1,264–79.Google Scholar

39 See Hakim, , Occupational SegregationGoogle Scholar; Barron, R. D. and Norris, G. M., ‘Sexual Divisions and the Dual Labour Market’, in Barker, D. L. and Allen, S. (eds), Dependence and Exploitation in Work and Marriage, Longman, London, 1976, pp. 47–69Google Scholar; Bosanquet, N. and Doeringer, P. B., ‘Is there a Dual Labour Market in Great Britain?’, Economic Journal, 83:330 (1973), 421–35Google Scholar; Stolzenberg, R. M., ‘Occupations, Labour Markets and the Process of Wage Attainment’, American Sociological Review, 40 (1975), 645–65Google Scholar; and Snyder, D. and Hudis, P. M., ‘Occupational Income and the Effects of Minority Competition and Segregation: A Reanalysis and Some New Evidence’, American Sociological Review, 41 (1976), 209–34.Google Scholar

40 Among the more recent of these are Trades Union Congress, Homeworfeing: A TUC Statement, London, 1978Google Scholar; Winyard, S., From Rags to Rags, Low Pay Pamphlet no. 7, Low Pay Unit, London, 1977Google Scholar; Shah, S., Immigrants and Employment in the Clothing Industry: The Rag Trade in London's East End, Runnymede Trust, London, 1975Google Scholar; Brown, M., Sweated Labour: A Study of Homework, Low Pay Unit, London, 1974Google Scholar; Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service. Toy Manufacturing Wages Council, Report no. 13, ACAS, London, 1978Google Scholar; and Sharp, Hugh, ‘Working in a Wages Council Industry’, Department of Employment Gazette, 86:11 (1978), 1,259–62.Google Scholar

41 see Hope, E., Kennedy, M. and De Winter, A., ‘Homeworkers in North London’, in Barker and Allen, Dependence and Exploitation in Work and Marriage, pp. 89 and 98.Google Scholar

42 Trades Union Congress, op. cit. p. 3.

43 Ibid. pp. 14–15.

44 Family workers are defined in the census as people who both work for a relative and live in the same household as that relative. No distinction is made between paid and unpaid family workers.

45 ‘Employers and Self-Employed People 1971–75’, Department of Employment Gazette, 85:6 (1977), 604–5.Google Scholar

46 See ‘Economic Commentary’, Bank of England Quarterly Bulletin, 18:4 (1978), 494.Google Scholar

47 OPCS, General Household Survey 1977, HMSO, London, 1970, pp. 71–2.Google Scholar

48 Unit for Manpower Studies, The Role of Immigrants in the Labour Market, Department of Employment, London, 04 1977.Google Scholar See also Smith, D. J., The Facts of Racial Disadvantage: A National Study, Vol. 42, Broadsheet no. 560, PEP, London, 1976.Google Scholar

49 For one approach, based on 1971 Census data, see Mayhew, K. and Rosewell, B., ‘Immigrants and Occupational Crowding in Great Britain’, Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, 40:3 (1978), 223–48.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

50 see Hakim, C., Data Dissemination for the Population Census, Occasional Paper no. 11, OPCS, London, 1978, p. 8.Google Scholar Census reports published by HMSO are listed in Sectional List 56: Office of Population Censuses and Surveys, February 1978.Google Scholar The list is revised annually and is available free on request from HMSO.

51 See Hakim, , Data Dissemination for the Population Census.Google Scholar

52 The SSRC Survey Archive functions as a secondary distributor of census Small Area Statistics and also of datasets that collate census-derived indicators and a range of other political, economic, social and health indicators. The service is of particular interest to researchers and graduate students in universities. The service offered by PRAG at the Centre for Environmental Studies is aimed primarily at local government, but it is also of interest to social researchers; it offers three national socio-economic area classifications based on 1971 Census Small Area Statistics. The third census agency, CACI, offers data retrieval and analysis services for the 1971 Census Small Area Statistics that are geared primarily towards business and market researchers, but are also of interest to planners and social researchers. Census agencies and their services are described in the Census Series of OPCS Monitors, available free on request from the Information Branch of the OPCS in London.

53 See for example Hakim, C., Census Data and Analysis: A Selected Bibliography, Occasional Paper no. 6, OPCS, London, 1978.Google Scholar

54 Central Statistical Office, Guide to Official Statistics, no. 2, HMSO, London, 1978Google Scholar; Buxton and Mackay, op. cit.; Edwards, B., Sources of Social Statistics, Heinemann, London, 1974Google Scholar; Maunder, W. F. (ed.), Reviews of United Kingdom Statistical Sources, twelve volumes, Heinemann, London, 1974Google Scholar, 1976 and 1978; Pickett, K. G., Sources of Official Data, Longman, London, 1974Google Scholar; Pieper, F. (compiler), Subject Index to Sources of Comparative International Statistics, CBD Research Ltd, Beckenham, Kent, 1978Google Scholar; and Reid, I., Social Class Differences in Britain: A Sourcebook, Open Books, London, 1977.Google Scholar

55 Central Statistical Onice, Government Statistics: A Brief Guide to Sources, 1978 edition, HMSO, London, 1977.Google Scholar This booklet is revised annually and is available free on request from the Central Statistical Office. Contact points for census data are also listed in Hakim, , Data Dissemination for the Population Census, p. 30.Google Scholar

56 OPCS, 1971 Census Income Follow-Up Survey.Google Scholar

57 see Hakim, C., ‘Data Dissemination for the Population Census’, Proceedings of the Statistics Users Conference on the Dissemination of Statistics held at the Royal Society, November 1978, IMAC Research, Esher, Surrey, 1979Google Scholar; and Smart, K. I., An Indexing and Retrieval Service for Statistics Users, Loughborough University of Technology, 05 1976Google Scholar

58 See Hakim, , Data Dissemination for the Population Census, pp. 27–8Google Scholar; and OPCS, OPCS Monitors: 1981 Census, CEN 79:3 (1970), 7.Google Scholar

59 The international Social Science Journal, for example, has initiated a new section on socio-economic data bases. See International Social Science Journal, 29:4 (1977)Google Scholar; 30:3 (1978); and 31:2 (1979).