Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what estimate his Department has made of the number of people in paid employment as at 15 September 2021.

For the three months to July 2021, the number of employees was estimated at 27.9 million, with 32.4 million in employment (including self-employed).

Early estimates from HMRC real time payroll data for August showed that the number of payroll employees was 29.1 million, returning to pre-pandemic level.