Employees in the UK by region: 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: provisional results 2022

• Employees in the UK by industry: provisional results 2022

• 11 of the 12 English regions and countries of the UK saw an increase in employees between 2021 and 2022; London saw the largest percentage increase (up 279,000 or 5.2%), followed by the South East (up 128,000 or 3.1%).

• The North East was the only region that saw a decrease in employees from 2021 to 2022 (down 13,700 or 1.3%), after seeing the largest percentage increase in employees from 2020 to 2021.

• 32 out of 33 local authorities in London saw an increase in the estimated number of employees between 2021 and 2022; the largest increases were in Southwark (up 41,000), Westminster (up 37,500), and the City of London (up 29,600).

• 50 out of 64 local authorities in the South East saw an increase in the estimated number of employees between 2021 and 2022; the largest increases were in Windsor and Maidenhead (up 15,300 or 19.5%), Rushmoor (up 10,800 or 22.3%), and West Berkshire (up 10,000 or 10.8%).

• 8 out of 12 local authorities in the North East saw decreases in the estimated number of employees between 2021 and 2022; the largest decreases were in Sunderland (down 6,700 or 5.6%), Stockton-on-Tees (down 2,900 or 3.4%), and Gateshead (down 2,200 or 2.4%).

• As of September 2022, all the regions and countries of the UK saw an increase in the estimated number of employees compared with September 2019 (before the coronavirus (COVID-19) 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.