An analysis of the North East Worker Registration Scheme data: Second briefing paper for the Talent North East Steering Group

This is the second briefing paper for the Steering Group on registrations by A8 workers to the Worker Registration Scheme (WRS) in the North East. It is based on a freedom of information request and contains the full data set for the North East region. This full set includes seven separate periods which allows some discussion of change over two distinct periods. The data does, though, carry a number of ‘health warnings’ as to accuracy of migration flow. This second set of data also has further caveats as it is now provided not with the original postcode of employers but with their postcode already broken down into local authority boundaries. What this means is that (1) currently up to six per cent of those who have registered are not now included. This is because they have originally not provided a completely accurate postcode and are therefore excluded when the sets are broken down into local authority boundaries. The occupation data set also contains only the top ten occupations. In both cases this means that some A8 registered workers who were included in briefing one are now not. For example this is most apparent with the occupation data and in particular the Administrative SOC2000 category which has been reduced from 112 to just 15; (2) the four separate data sets obtained (nationality, gender, age and occupation) have differing final and therefore sub?regional totals. The author has been informed that this is due to firstly people not answering all the questions when registering and secondly that the sets are now rounded to the nearest five as is common to maintain individual anonymity. As other national migration data sources, for example the national insurance number allocations for foreign workers and the labour force survey, also have their own limitations when used in a North East, sub?regional and local authority context. The WRS data still provides useful labour market A8 migration information for the region and is one part of a wider picture of change in our regional labour market since May 2004