Asked by: Earl of Leicester (Conservative - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what estimate they have made of how many (1) vacancies, and (2) roles, there were in the farming sector, in each month of 2022.
Answered by Lord True - Leader of the House of Lords and Lord Privy Seal
A response to the noble Lord’s Parliamentary Question of 12 July is below and attached.
Professor Sir Ian Diamond | National Statistician
The Earl of Leicester
House of Lords
London
SW1A 0PW
18 July 2022
Dear Lord Leicester,
As National Statistician and Chief Executive of the UK Statistics Authority, I am responding to your Parliamentary Question asking what estimate has been made of how many (1) vacancies, and (2) roles, there were in the farming sector, in each month of 2022 (HL1696). The Office for National Statistics produces statistics on both vacancies and jobs in our Vacancies and Jobs statistical publication[1]. Within this publication, estimates of both vacancies[2] and jobs[3] are produced by industry, according to the Standard Industrial Classification 2007. Within the classification, the closest industry to “farming” would be Agriculture, Forestry and Fishing. With the data available, unfortunately it is not possible to provide estimates of the number of vacancies held by agricultural businesses. This is because the vacancy survey excludes businesses within the Agriculture, Forestry and Fishing industry, owing to the disproportionate costs involved as the industry mainly consists of very small businesses with few vacancies. We are however exploring the use of online job advert data to provide better insights into labour demand by occupation, and we are hoping to publish these insights later this year.
Statistics on jobs are published on a quarterly basis and for agriculture, forestry and fishing are based on estimates of first and second jobs, either as employees or as self-employed, as measured by our Labour Force Survey[4]. As it is a survey of people within private households, it is based on respondents correctly classifying themselves within the right industry. Our most recent publication in June covered data up to March 2022 when we estimate there to have been 329,000 jobs within the Agriculture, Forestry and Fishing industry[5]. This represented a fall of 13,000 from the previous period (December 2021), and a fall of 79,000 when compared with its pre-pandemic level in December 2019.
Yours sincerely,
Professor Sir Ian Diamond
1 https://www.ons.gov.uk/employmentandlabourmarket/peopleinwork/employmentandemployeetypes/bulletins/jobsandvacanciesintheuk/latest
2 https://www.ons.gov.uk/employmentandlabourmarket/peoplenotinwork/unemployment/datasets/vacanciesbyindustryvacs02
3 https://www.ons.gov.uk/employmentandlabourmarket/peopleinwork/employmentandemployeetypes/datasets/workforcejobsbyindustryjobs02
4 https://www.ons.gov.uk/surveys/informationforhouseholdsandindividuals/householdandindividualsurveys/labourforcesurvey
5 https://www.ons.gov.uk/employmentandlabourmarket/peopleinwork/employmentandemployeetypes/datasets/summaryoflabourmarketstatistics