You asked
I am writing to ask whether it would be possible to obtain unemployment statistics for young people living in London aged 16 to 24, broken down on the basis of age (yearly if possible), gender, and ethnicity for the years 1990 to 2018, or earliest possible date.
We said
Thank you for your enquiry into unemployment statistics for young people in London.
We produce unemployment statistics for people of differing characteristics within regions from the Annual Population Survey (APS). The APS is a household sample survey which categorises individuals to labour market status in line with International Labour Organisation (ILO) definitions based on responses to interview. In addition, the APS collects information on the age, sex and ethnicity of those interviewed. Although, based on the information collected, it is possible to produce estimates for all the categories you have identified, due to the APS being a sample survey, there is a limit to the level of detail that it is sensible to produce.
We publish a number of analyses from the APS that cover elements of your request, although none that will give the full detail that you are interested in.
We publish statistics on the numbers of young people who are unemployed in each region, broken down by sex and two age bands (16 to 19 and 20 to 24). This breakdown does not include any element of ethnicity.
We publish statistics on the number of young people in each region, split between white and ethnic minority, sex and two age bands (16 to 19 and 20 to 24). This breakdown does not include any element of labour market status.
We publish statistics on the number of unemployed people in each region, split between ethnic group and sex. This breakdown does not include any element of age breakdown.
All of these types of breakdown are available from the APS datasets on our Nomis website, (https://www.nomisweb.co.uk/). However, it should be noted that the APS was only launched in 2004. Whilst some information is available on Nomis from its predecessors the Local Area Labour Force Survey and Annual Labour Force Survey, this is less detailed than information available from the APS.
It would be possible to request to have a specific analysis produced by our social surveys team. Please note that there may be a charge for this service depending on the amount of time taken to develop the analysis and undertake quality and disclosure control processes.
https://www.ons.gov.uk/aboutus/whatwedo/statistics/requestingstatistics/makingarequest
If you choose to request a detailed analysis produced, it should be remembered that the level of detail requested will affect the quality of any statistics produced.