Business Survey Estimates Fall In Number Of Jobs

The Business Register and Employment Survey estimates that for September 2010 there were 26.8m employees, down 134,000 on 2009. Tha largest fall among the countries of the UK was in Scotland at 73,000.

The region with the most employees was London with 4.1m (15.3% of UK employees) next came the South East with 3.7m (13.8%). London also had the highest proportion of full-time employees at 74.1%. Other regions had less than 70%. The regions with the lowest number of employees were Northern Ireland with 705,000 (2.6%) and the North East with 999,000 (3.7%) with over a third part-time.

In the UK as a whole, there were 18.1m full-time and 8.7m part-time employees. The health sector continued to have the largest number of employees with 3.6m. The industry with the lowest number of employees was agriculture, forestry and fishing with 214,000 (0.8%). Construction employment decreased the most down 118,000 employees. Mining, quarrying and utilities had the largest proportion of full-time workers at 93.3%. The retail sector had the largest proportion of part-time workers at 57.2%. Business administration and support services grew by 62,000.

Earnings and Hours of Agricultural Workers 2010

The latest release from Defra regarding the earnings and hours of agricultural workers was released recently and shows that in 2010 male full-time workers earned £8.20 per hour for a 47.5 hour week. The average weekly wage was £390. Female full-time workers earned an average £7.09 per hour for a 43 hour week. Male part-time workers earned on average £170 per week at £7.65 per hour while females earned £150 per week for an average of £6.93 per hour.

The average Agricultural Wages Board (AWB) minimum earnings/hour for male full-time workers was £7.74, female full-time workers £7.09, male part-timers £6.96 and females £6.57 per hour.

Agricultural Labour 2010

There were 293,000 people working on commercial agricultural holdings in 2010 unchanged from 2009 compared with the 312,000 in 2008. There was a total of 170,000 farmers, partners directors and spouses, up 3% on 2009. There were 11,000 salaried managers, an increase of 1% on 2009. The other 112,000 workers (-4%) included 47,000 full-time workers (+3%), 28,000 part-time workers (-4%) and 37,000 casual workers (-12%).

A comparison can also be made between those working on "commercial" holdings and the total for "all" holdings in 2009. The total number of people working on "all" holdings in 2009 was 363,000. Farmers, partners, directors and spouses totalled 223,000 compared with 165,000, salaried managers totalled 12,000 on "all" holdings compared with 10,000 working on "commercial" holdings. Other workers totalled 128,00 on "all" holdings and 117,000 on "commercial" holdings.

Final June Agricultural Survey Results, England 2009

The final June Survey results for England were released by DEFRA and ONS on 19 November 2009. Some of the key results were that the total area of agricultural holdings in England has increased to 9.4m hectares since 2008. The total croppable area is estimated at 4.9m hectares. The area cropped has fallen to 3.99m hectares but the total land out of arable production stands at 231,000 hectares. Fruit and vegetables grown outdoors account for 140,000 hectares, up 2% on 2008. Common rough grazing stands at 427,900 ha. The total agricultural area has increased in size again this year to 9.8m ha.

Owner occupied land is largely the same as 2008 at 6.3m ha. Land rented for more than a year is also unchanged at 3.3m ha. The area under Full Agricultural Tenancy agreements (FAT) continued to decrease, by 2.9%, to 1,680,900 ha and Farm Business Tenancies have increased 3.8% to 1,094,400 ha. Other agreements have risen to 497,800 ha, up 2.2%.

The national herd of cattle remained at around 5.5m according to the Cattle Tracing Scheme. There were 3.9m pigs, up 0.5%. These included 444,000 breeding pigs. The national sheep flock was 14,984,000 sheep and lambs, down 3.5% on June 2008. The female breeding flock of 6,672,000, down 5.1% on last year, included 5,550,000 ewes for further breeding and 797,00 first time breeding ewes. 326,000 ewes were intended for slaughter. Rams totalled 171,000, down 5.4% on 2008.

The total number of people employed in agricultural was 363,000 up nearly 3,000 from last year. These included 223,000 farmers, business partners, directors and spouses of which 127,200 were part-time, 11,900 salaried managers and 127,800 other workers, 49,400 of which were full-time, the rest part-time or seasonal/casual or gang workers.

Productivity Comparisons For 2008

Data from the Office for National Statistics show that in 2008 UK GDP/worker was above Japan, similar to Canada and Germany, below that of France, Italy and the US and lower than the average of the G7 excluding the UK. On the basis of GDP/hour worked the UK is above Japan, similar to Canada and Italy but below France, Germany and the US.

The UK experienced faster productivity growth than all other G7 countries since 1991 by the GDP/worker measure. UK GDP/worker had grown by 39% since 1991 compared to the G7 average of 29%. UK GDP/hour worked increased by 49% between 1991 and 2007, the fastest growth of any G7 country for that period. The G7 average excluding the UK was 36%. GDP data for each country are coverted using purchasing power parities to make them comparable.

Fall In Productivity In Q2 2009

The productivity statistics for the second quarter of 2009 were released by the ONS on Wednesday. They show that whole economy output per worker decreased by 3.9% in the second quarter of 2009 from a fall of 4.4% in the previous quarter. Quarter-on quarter output per worker increased by 0.3% in Q2 after a fall of 2% in the previous quarter. Unit wage costs in Q2 for the whole economy increased 5.7% compared with Q2 2008. They increased by 1.6% on the first quarter and 1.5% on the previous quarter.

Using output per hour worked, an alternative measure of productivity, Q2 2009 saw a decrease of 3.4% for the same quarter a year ago and total hours worked fell by 2.4%.

Manufacturing output/hour decreased by 2.7% and services by 3.3% in Q2 2009. Services output/job decreased by 3.6%. The increase in the contraction rate of services productivity is partly due to an increase in the contraction rate of output partly offset by an increase in the contraction rate of services jobs.

Farmworkers Pay In January

Full-time male agricultural workers earned on average £367.48/week or £8.09/hour for an average 45.4 hour week during January 2009 an increase of £0.83 on 2008. Female workers earned £7.17. Farm managers earned on average £551.43/week. Over the year to January 2009 the figures were £381.12/week or £7.88/hour for an average 48.4 hour week. Managers got £524.71/week according to the latest figures from DEFRA.

There are to be some changes to the survey in future. The survey will in future be published on an annual basis for the 12 months ending in September. The quarterly data will help achieve a representative sample of workers across the year.