Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what proportion of adults have Level 2 as their highest qualification; and how many of those people are (a) in employment, (b) unemployed and (c) claiming benefits.
The latest estimate as of the end of 2019 for the proportion of adults, aged between 19 and 64 years, who have level 2 as their highest qualification is 18%, as estimated by the Labour Force Survey and reported in the publication education and training statistics for the UK.
Data on employment, unemployment, pay and income, and benefits by highest qualification level for the wider age group of 16 to 64 year olds in the UK is estimated using the Annual Population Survey of 2019.
The table below shows the percentage and number of working age people, aged 16 to 64 years old, in the UK who are and not in full time education and either employed, economically inactive or unemployed who reported their highest qualification as level 2 in 2019. Those claiming benefits would either be classified as unemployed or economically inactive in the table below.
| Percentage with level 2 as highest qualification | Number with level 2 as highest qualification |
Employed | 76% | 4,640,000 |
Unemployed | 3% | 210,000 |
Economically Inactive | 21% | 1,277,000 |
Total | 100% | 6,128,000 |
Percentages in tables are rounded to whole numbers and figures are rounded to the nearest 1000.