Population, employment and unemployment

Long Historical Time Series of Population and Employment

Users should first consult the labour market section of Millennium of Macroeconomic Data v3.1 (xls) for long-run composite time series up to the present day.  These contain some of the data from the more detailed sources listed below.  Summary data from this spreadsheet are available for interactive viewing via FRED.

Population and demographic data

The Annual Reports of the Registrar General of Births Deaths and Marriages in England and Wales and the Registrar General's Statistical Review of England and Wale can be found in digital form at the LSE Digital Library at the link below alongside other useful publications on demographics:

• Annual Reports and Statistical Reviews of the Registrar General from 1839

Labour market historical statistics

The British Labour Statistics Historical Abstract 1886-1968 represents a key source of data for the labour market prior to current official statistics which generally begin in 1971.

• British Labour Statistics Historical Abstract 1886-1968.pdf

This abstract summarised the information from the earlier series Abstract of Labour Statistics which is available in the Relevant Periodicals section below. The gap between 1968 and 1971 can be filled by the Department of Employment Gazette and Labour Statistics Yearbooks which can also be found in the Relevant Periodicals section. A selection of subsequent Employment Gazette historical supplements are shown below:

• Employment Gazette August 1984 Historical Supplement  (18MB)
• Employment Gazette February 1987 Historical Supplement  (26MB)
• Employment Gazette April 1989 Historical Supplement  (20MB)
• Employment Gazette November 1989 Historical Supplement  (33MB)
• Employment Gazette October 1994 Historical Supplement  (39MB)

Official Guides to Labour Statistics

The guide to labour statistics from 1958 below is an extremely useful document that deals with the sources of both historical and contemporary labour market data up to that point in time.

• Guide to Official Sources: No.1 Labour Statistics (53MB)

Methodological articles on employment and unemployment

Various administrative and survey-based sources have been used over time to construct employment and unemployment statistics. The following methodological articles discuss the development of employment and unemployment statistics over time and highlight the various issues arising from the different sources:

• Denman and Macdonald - LMT 1996 - Unemployment Statistics from 1881 to the present day
• Clancy and Stam 2010 ELMR article - Explaining the difference between unemployment and the claimant count
• Clegg ELMR 2008 - Comparisons between unemployment and the claimant count, 1971 to 2007
• Lindsay and Doyle LMT 2003 - Experimental consistent time series of historical LFS data
• Perry 1996 LMT article - Measuring Employment - a comparison of sources (link to LSE Digital Library)

The following titles are available to select in the dropdown menus of this section. The LSE Digital Library have also digitised many of the key periodicals and we provide links to those as well.

• Abstracts of Historical Labour Statistics from 1886 including Labour Statistics Yearbooks 1969-1976
• Ministry of Labour Gazette 1919-1945.
  The years 1887 to 1918 and 1946-1968 can be found at the LSE Digital Library here
• The Employment and Productivity Gazette 1968-1970 can be found at the LSE Digital Library here
• The Department of Employment Gazette (subsequently the Employment Gazette) 1971-1995 can be be found at the LSE Digital Library here
• Labour Market Trends 2001-2006.
  The years 1996 to 2000 can be found at the LSE Digital Library here

Please select a publication title and year from the boxes below to narrow down the list. Alternatively type in a general search term. The available excel and pdf files are shown in the table. If the publication you are looking for is not in this section please see the complete list of downloadable publication. 

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