Scotland
Blue collar employment
Key points
- The total number of jobs grew by around 400,000 (19%) in the period from 1997 to 2007. But this overall rise masks a sharp change in the mix with private sector service jobs up by 260,000 (28%), public sector jobs up by 220,000 (32%), and manufacturing, construction and other production industry down by 80,000 (-13%).
- A third of full-time male jobs are in manufacturing, construction and other production industries, compared to one in ten full-time female jobs and one in twenty part-time jobs.
- Manufacturing, construction and other production industries are the areas which are dominated by full-time male jobs.
- Just about all local authority areas have lost jobs in manufacturing, construction and other production industries since 1998.
- See the UK indicator on jobs.
Graph 1: Over time
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Graph 2: By gender
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Graph 3: By industry
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Graph 4: By LA
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Definitions and data sources
The first graph shows total number of jobs over time, with the data broken down into four overall sectors, namely: manufacturing, construction and other production industries (sec codes A-F); wholesale, retail, hotels and restaurants (sec codes G-H); finance and other business activities (sec codes I-K); and public sector and other community services (sec codes L-Q).
The second graph shows, for the latest year, the proportion of jobs that are in each of the four sectors for each of full-time male employees, full-time female employees and part-time employees (both sexes combined).
The third graph shows, for the latest year, how the total number of jobs in each sector is divided between full-time male jobs, full-time female jobs and part-time jobs (both sexes combined).
The fourth graph shows how the number of jobs in manufacturing, construction and other production industries (industry codes A-F) has changed over time by local authority. To improve its statistical reliability, data has been averaged across three-year periods with the comparison being between 1998-2000 and 2004-2006.
For all bar the fourth graph, the data includes both employed people and self-employed people (self-employment data not being available by local authority). For self-employment, the data source in all the graphs is the Labour Force Survey. For employment, the data source for the first graph is Labour Market Statistics and that for the second, third and fourth graphs is the Annual Business Inquiry (ABI) obtained via the Nomis website. All the employment data relates to the location of the jobs themselves rather than to where the people doing these jobs live.
Note that there are some uncertainties about the results in the fourth graph, partly because the numbers move around a lot from year to year and partly because of some methodological discontinuities between years. Also note that the first ABI survey was in 1998 and the data refers to the jobs available within each area rather than the jobs performed by the people who live there. In principle, a longer time series could have been used by stitching together the ABI and its predecessor, the Annual Employment Survey (AES). In practice, however, this is not possible because the two surveys use different methods of calculation which give rather different answers at geographic levels below that of Great Britain. Such discrepancies are discussed in the ONS report of their ABI/AES reconciliation project, which recognised the extent of this problem.
Overall adequacy of the indicator: medium. Labour Market Statistics are an authoritative source but are subject to substantial revisions from time to time.
External links
See the New Deal website.