The GLA’s London Workforce Employment Series

This article describes the construction of the workforce employment data used by the Greater London Authority. It reproduces, in citable form and, for scholarly purposes, the report of the same name produced by the author for the Greater London Authority. This article describes the sources of this data and explains where they can be found. Workforce employment data is a vital resource for many cities, underpinning many city planning decisions Other important data about cities , such as estimates of its economic output, often depend on it. To build a reliable picture of London’s economy, it is essential to understand where its estimates of workforce employment come from, what information they provide and how reliable they are. The report explains what the term ‘workforce employment’ actually means, looks at the data sources that are used to obtain it, and discusses some of their limitations. Appendix A, compiled by Peter Urwin of the University of Westminster, contains a study the GLA commissioned from Westminster University which analyses discrepancies between the UK’s two main primary sources of employment data – the Labour Force Survey (LFS) and the Annual Business Inquiry (ABI). Finally, it explains how GLA Economics selects and compiles its workforce employment series. Appendix B, compiled by Experian Business Studies, explains the statistical methods used to construct the data from the primary sources.