FOI reference: FOI-2026-3680
You asked
Please can you provide employment data for Scotland broken down by 4-digit SOC and geography at local authority district level. If local authority district data is not available, please provide the nearest available geographic breakdown, together with any metadata or guidance needed to interpret the figures. If possible, please include the latest available year and any historical series held.
We said
Thank you for your query about employment data for Scotland, broken down by detailed occupation and geography.
We produce detailed occupation breakdowns using data from the Annual Population Survey (APS), which is based on interviews with people resident in private households across the UK.
We publish estimates for Scotland by 4-digit Standard Occupational Classification (SOC). These are available through Nomis in the Employment by occupation by sex report, alongside the accompanying explorable dataset. We also publish APS-based estimates at local authority level, but these are limited to broader occupational breakdowns, such as 2-digit SOC, and are available through the main APS dataset on Nomis.
Because of sample size limitations, we do not usually produce APS estimates broken down simultaneously by 4-digit SOC and local authority district. This is because at this level of occupational and geographic detail, the estimates would be based on very small sample sizes and are not sufficiently robust.
Another source that may provide the information you have requested at the level of geographic and occupational detail would be Scotland's Census. However, this analysis does not appear to be available in published outputs. You may wish to contact National Records of Scotland, which is responsible for Scotland's Census, to ask whether they hold or can provide data at this level of detail.
However, if you wish to obtain this information, despite its limitations, you may request this as bespoke analysis from our social surveys team. Such services are subject to legal frameworks, resources and agreement of costs. If you would like to request this bespoke dataset, please contact socialsurveys@ons.gov.uk to discuss your enquiry further. Please note, there will be a charge for this work, which would be subject to our charging policy. Please also note that, owing to the sample size issues outlined above, such an analysis would be unlikely to produce reliable estimates.
As the requested information is reasonably accessible via another route, even if only accessible on payment, Section 21(2)(a) of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FOIA) applies.