Business Register and Employment Survey (BRES) 2009 (formerly known as Annual Business Inquiry (ABI1)): Employee Jobs

Statistics on employee jobs include data for Wales and local authorities within Wales for the period 2008 - 2009. The latest release updates the statistics previously released on 16 December 2009.

The key points from the latest data are:

• In 2009 there were 1.158 million employee jobs in Wales, 3.2 per cent lower than the figure of 1.196 million in 2008 and 8.3 per cent higher than the figure of 1.070 million in 1999. For Great Britain as a whole there was a 2.9 per cent fall between 2008 and 2009 and a 5.6 per cent increase between 1999 and 2009. [Please note there is a discontinuity between 2008/2009 and prior years]
• There were falls in ten of the eleven regions and countries in Great Britain between 2008 and 2009, with the West Midlands having the largest fall (down 5.2 per cent). Wales had the fifth smallest fall. The only region to have an increase was the South West (0.2 per cent over this period).
• Ten of the eleven GB regions/countries had increases between 1999 and 2009. Wales was the fifth highest, behind the South West, the East of England, Scotland and the East Midlands. The West Midlands was the only region to have a fall over this period, down 2.1 per cent.
• The change in Wales between 2008 and 2009 was spread across a number of industry sectors, with the largest absolute fall in the manufacturing sector (down 22,000) followed by the construction sector (down 6,000). The largest increases were in the wholesale sector (up 4,000) followed by the public administration sector (up 3,000).
• In 2009, the health sector was the largest in Wales, accounting for 15.7 per cent of all employee jobs, followed by 11.6 per cent in the manufacturing sector and 11.4 per cent in the retail sector.
• In 2009 there were 329,000 public sector employee jobs and 829,000 private sector employee jobs in Wales, the share of these jobs was 28.4 per cent public and 71.6 per cent private (GB 21.7 per cent public and 78.3 per cent private). Please note that these estimates of public sector employee jobs differ to those of the official public sector employment estimates – the official estimates can be found on the Office for National Statistics website.

The BRES has replaced the ABI/1. Therefore results for 2008 and 2009 are not consistent with previous years. The ONS have produced an article describing the discontinuity.

The BRES employee jobs dataset includes data at a local authority level, and the detailed dataset on StatsWales will be updated shortly to include the 2008 and 2009 data for Wales by broad industry heading, including a local authority breakdown.

Further information

Office for National Statistics website: Public Sector Employment Estimates.

Office for National Statistics website: Article describing discontinuity between 2008 and 2009 results.

Contact

Tel: 029 2082 5017
E-mail: economic.stats@wales.gsi.gov.uk

Next update

December 2011 (provisional – to be confirmed on the Due Out Soon page)