Working and workless households in the UK: January to March 2021

• Of the estimated 21.0 million households (where at least one member is aged 16 to 64 years) in the UK, 59.0% had all household members aged 16 years and over in employment during January to March 2021; down 1.4 percentage points compared with the same period last year.

• There was an estimated 27.6% of households with a mix of at least one working and one workless adult, up 1.8 percentage points compared with the same period last year.

• There was an estimated 13.4% of households where no member of the household was in employment, down 0.3 percentage points compared with the same period last year.

Labour force survey (LFS) household datasets are used for analysis of family or household characteristics. For all analysis in this bulletin a household is defined as containing at least one person aged 16 to 64 years old. This bulletin focuses on the economic status of household members. For example:

• number of people in employment in the household

• number of people unemployed in the household

• number of people economically inactive in the household

All estimates in this release are not seasonally adjusted and all comparisons should be carried out on an annual basis (for example, by comparing April to June periods with April to June periods or October to December periods with October to December periods). Comparisons made in the datasets associated with this release are between the latest available period, January to March 2021, and January to March 2020.

Coronavirus (COVID-19)

For information on how labour market data sources are affected by the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, see the article published on 6 May 2020, detailing some of the challenges that we have faced in producing estimates.

An article published on 11 December 2020 compares our labour market data sources and discusses some of the main differences.

LFS responses are weighted to official 2018-based population projections on demographic trends that pre-date the coronavirus pandemic. In our Coronavirus and the impact on payroll employment article we analyse the population totals used in the LFS weighting process and state our intention to make adjustments. Rates published from the LFS remain robust; however, levels and changes in levels should be used with caution. This will particularly affect estimates for country of birth, nationality, ethnicity, and disability.

An article published on 17 May 2021 describes the new LFS weighting methodology, which will be applied to results from July 2021.

For details on working and workless households for local authorities, see Workless households for regions across the UK.

For details on children living in long-term workless households, see Children living in long-term workless households in the UK: 2019.