The labour market [March 1997]

Past Commentaries have noted the many revisions made to official estimates of employment, including those made in May 1994, following the selection of a revised panel of employers who form the basis for the procedures to estimate total employment. Recently the Department of Employment revised its estimates of employees in employment, particularly in the construction industry. In Britain as a whole the revisions added around 120,000 extra jobs in the construction industry. This helps in part to resolve the puzzle of apparently "jobless recovery"