Employees in the UK: provisional results 2022

Commentary on topics covered in the Business Register and Employment Survey (BRES) is split between three separate headline bulletins. Other commentary from the latest BRES data can be found on the following pages:

• Employees in the UK by region: provisional results 2022

• Employees in the UK by industry: provisional results 2022

• The estimated number of employees in the UK increased by 669,100 (2.2%) between 2021and 2022, from 31.1 million to 31.8 million; private sector employees increased by 647,300 (2.5%) and public sector employees increased by 21,700 (0.4%).

• Between 2021 and 2022, the estimated number of full-time employees increased by 674,300 (3.2%) and the estimated number of part-time employees decreased by 5,200 (0.1%).

• Between 2021 and 2022, the largest increase in employees by industry was in accommodation and food services (up 189,500 or 8.1%); the largest decrease by industry was in retail (down 143,700, or 5.0%).

• Of the 12 English regions and countries in the UK, 11 saw an increase in employees between 2021 and 2022; London saw the largest percentage increase in employees (up 279,000 or 5.2%) and the North East was the only region that saw a decrease in employees (down 13,700 or 1.3%).

• As of September 2022, there were five broad industry groups that were still below the September 2019 level (before the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic); in September 2022, the remaining 13 broad industry groups had shown an increase in employees compared with 2019.

• As of September 2022, all English regions and countries in the UK saw an increase in the level of employees since September 2019 (before the pandemic).

Coronavirus

Our Coronavirus (COVID-19) and the effects on UK labour market statistics article has more information about how labour market sources have been affected by the coronavirus pandemic. 

View our Comparison of our labour market data sources article. 

Sources

The Business Register and Employment Survey (BRES) is a sample survey. For the 2022 survey period, approximately 85,000 businesses were sampled for Great Britain. The response rate for the 2022 BRES survey was 82.0%. Northern Ireland data were collected independently by the Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency. All estimates for 2022 are provisional. Data from the 2021 survey have been subject to small revisions since we published our Employees in the UK: provisional results 2021 bulletin on 13 October 2022. "Total employees" rather than "total employment" is used when discussing the main points. Employees is the more robust of the two measures and is recommended for use in analysis. Further information about BRES can be found in our BRES Quality and Methodology Information (QMI) report.

There was a methodological change in producing agriculture estimates for Scotland for the 2022 provisional estimates. The Scottish Agricultural Census was paused for 2022 so employee levels from the Pay As You Earn (PAYE) Agriculture, Forestry and Fishing series for Scotland was used to calculate an annual growth rate. This was then applied to the 2021 Scottish Agricultural Census data to calculate estimates for 2022, and the usual method was followed from this point.

BRES is the primary source for employee estimates at a detailed regional and industrial level. More timely, less detailed employment estimates are available in workforce jobs (WFJ). Workforce jobs benchmark the private sector employee component to the BRES private sector employee estimates on an annual basis. The WFJ series, which is compiled mainly from surveys of businesses, is the preferred source of statistics when comparing changes in employment over time. The BRES industry data are recommended over industry data from household surveys, such as the Annual Population Survey (APS) and Labour Force Survey (LFS).  

The public sector employee job figures from BRES aggregated to regional or national level will not match those produced from our Public sector employment, UK bulletin, which is the recommended source for public sector employment figures.

Employee

An employee is defined as anyone aged 16 years or over who is paid directly from the payroll, in return for carrying out a full-time or part-time job or being on a training scheme.

Employment

Employment includes employees, plus the number of working owners, who receive drawings or a share of the profits.

Full-time and part-time

Full-time is defined as working more than 30 hours per week and part-time is defined as working 30 hours or fewer per week.

Legal status

The Business Register and Employment Survey (BRES) includes breakdowns by public and private sector, according to the legal status for national accounts classification purposes.

Standard Industrial Classification

Figures are classified to the Standard Industrial Classification 2007: SIC 2007. In this bulletin, the term "industry" refers to a "section" as defined in SIC 2007.

Sampling variability

Because of the survey's large sample size, BRES is able to produce good-quality estimates for detailed breakdowns by industry and geography. The coefficient of variation, a measure of quality, accompanies the BRES datasets on our website. The quality of the estimates may deteriorate for smaller geographies and this should be taken into account when making inferences about the figures.