Labour Market - Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings - Report Example

The Labor Market (ASHE) Report Introduction The current labor market is entangled with varied differences that emanate from the various labor rates that are always deemed to bring some questionable disparity in the income distribution. In this sense, the variability needs should be given more concern on the reasons as to why various persons of different occupations have varied pay rates. The Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings (ASHE) is one of those platforms that brings on board the inception of these analyses, The survey provides a profound insight to the income disparity in the labor market. As stated by the classical theorists, it is important to actually leave the market forces of demand and supply to interact in order to bring some efficiency. This postulation might be very detrimental to the common man since it is deemed to infringe the rights of the common people in the society. In this case, most of the government across the world get into the real gist of controlling the labor force in order to protect the labor force from the unscrupulous ways of industrialists. This is based on the fact that their main aim is to maximize on the profits (Lipsey and Chrystal 2011, 98). The main aim of this paper is to give an incisive analysis on The Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings (ASHE) brought forward in the government website on labor statistics. It would look at the various variations that might occur in the labor market from one occupation to the other and from duration of job to the other. This will be accentuated with profound analysis on the causes of the variations and explaination on how the differences could be made in available to the betterment of the economy. Method For this analysis, the data is accessed government website on the labor statistics (http://www.ons.gov.uk/ons/datasets-and-tables/index.html?pageSize=50&sortBy=none&sortDirection =none&newquery=labor+weekly+earning +by+occupation &contenttype=Reference+table&content-type =Dataset&nscl=Labor +Market). The categorization that has been used is based on weekly earnings of the laborer from various regions. Also, the method that has been used to analysis the data is through the calculations of the median. The median was used since it is the best measure of central tendency where there are outliners. This is strengthened by the fact that the regions under consideration have varied range of disparity in terms of earning either weekly or hourly. The comparison is mainly based on the hourly and weekly earnings in the various regions. The median for the basic pay would be compared with that of the overtime pay. The comparison is going to be done between the two prompts in order to find evidence of reacting to such deviations noted. Data representation The table below represents the various weekly and monthly earnings by region considering the number of hours worked and the advent of basic pay and overtime pay. 9.19 Median1 weekly earnings and hours2: by area of residence and sex, April 2010 £ per week and hours                     Median gross weekly earnings Median weekly hours                   Median hourly earnings excluding overtime (£)     of which     of which                 Total (£) Basic pay3 (£) Overtime pay (£)   Total (hours) Basic hours (hours) Overtime (hours)                       All full-time employees                 United Kingdom 498.80 460.80 55.30   37.5 37.5 4.0 12.50                   England 506.00 469.90 54.80   37.5 37.5 4.0 12.69                   North East 443.10 409.80 61.30   37.5 37.5 4.1 11.15 North West 471.20 434.30 52.60   37.5 37.5 3.9 11.85 Yorkshire and The Humber 463.00 424.70 54.00   37.5 37.5 4.4 11.49                   East Midlands 470.30 427.20 56.70   37.5 37.5 4.5 11.54 West Midlands 469.20 429.50 53.70   37.5 37.5 4.1 11.62                   East 523.30 483.40 55.40   37.5 37.5 4.0 13.03 London 606.80 574.90 60.30   37.5 37.5 4.1 15.77 South East 547.80 513.20 52.70   37.5 37.5 3.8 13.87 South West 468.30 431.00 51.60   37.5 37.5 3.9 11.57                   Wales 456.40 417.00 55.20   37.5 37.5 4.0 11.47 Scotland 486.90 444.70 57.20   37.5 37.5 4.0 12.15 Northern Ireland 442.20 409.00 62.80   38.0 37.6 4.8 10.89                   Full-time male employees                 United Kingdom 538.20 486.80 65.30   39.0 37.5 4.6 13.01                   England 547.20 497.70 64.70   38.9 37.5 4.6 13.25                   North East 483.80 427.70 73.00   39.0 37.5 5.0 11.73 North West 504.30 454.40 61.90   38.8 37.5 4.4 12.25 Yorkshire and The Humber 500.80 444.40 64.60   39.0 37.5 5.1 11.92                   East Midlands 513.20 456.00 65.90   39.1 38.0 5.1 12.15 West Midlands 503.90 460.00 63.40   39.0 37.5 4.9 12.21                   East 574.00 521.10 66.70   39.0 37.5 4.5 13.78 London 645.50 605.10 67.40   37.5 37.5 4.6 16.30 South East 604.60 562.10 62.70   38.0 37.5 4.1 15.01 South West 515.20 462.70 60.70   39.0 37.5 4.3 12.24                   Wales 490.30 434.00 63.80   39.0 37.5 4.4 11.88 Scotland 521.80 467.30 68.30   38.8 37.5 4.7 12.55 Northern Ireland 461.60 411.90 72.20   39.9 39.0 5.5 10.89                   Full-time female employees                 United Kingdom 439.00 421.60 34.50   37.0 37.0 2.8 11.68                   England 443.00 426.50 34.30   37.1 37.0 2.8 11.82                   North East 394.80 376.20 31.20   37.0 37.0 2.6 10.52 North West 418.10 405.80 30.90   37.0 37.0 2.6 11.18 Yorkshire and The Humber 405.50 386.10 31.80   37.0 37.0 2.6 10.77                   East Midlands 399.10 382.00 33.90   37.4 37.0 2.9 10.50 West Midlands 401.90 388.10 30.60   37.0 37.0 2.7 10.80                   East 450.60 431.30 33.80   37.4 37.0 3.0 11.87 London 566.90 550.00 41.70   37.1 36.9 3.3 15.22 South East 461.40 444.30 34.70   37.4 37.0 2.8 12.28 South West 403.50 384.80 34.80   37.4 37.0 3.1 10.65                   Wales 405.80 384.10 36.80   37.0 37.0 2.8 10.80 Scotland 430.10 415.50 32.80   36.9 36.2 2.6 11.62 Northern Ireland 412.30 402.50 44.30   37.5 37.5 3.9 10.87                   1 Median values are not influenced by extremes of income earnings at end of the hourly and weekly scale, 2 Data is in relation to full-time workers on adult rates pf which pay for the survey pay-duration was not influenced by absence. 3 Basic pay for the pay duration, before subtractions. Includes the other pay and not overtime, shift premiums, commission, bonuses and all the other incentive payments.                   Source: Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings, Office for National Statistics; Department of Enterprise, Trade and Investment, Northern Ireland Released on Regional Trends Online 3 March 2011 Discussion From the above data, it is evident that the basic weekly pay for Scotland is higher than both for the Northern Ireland and the Wales country. The basic weekly pay for Scotland is high because of the higher stance of GDP in this country. Even though he range of difference does not vary, the real gist of the matter shows the regions have a mixed type of economy where the government has a hand in the labor allocation. The high weekly rate depicted in Scotland is because of the government fixing a wage price floor which actually stipulates that the employers should tighten up their advent of paying these workers (Chowdry& Sianesi, 2011). In accordance with the classical theorists, the high wage rate level depicts a high income levels which in turn makes the level of consumption to be higher. Thus, it causes an increase in the GDP of the country. The other countries such as the Ireland have not reinstated the gist of regulation. In this sense, it is imperative to note that the discrepancy seen in the labor rate level is due to the high imperfections in the market that is caused by the rules and regulation in the market for the three countries. As it stands now, the overtime rates seem to be lower than the basic pay. These variations are caused by the inadequate regulations that are seen in the labor markets. It is imperative to note that the decision to give the direct amount of salary for overtime cases is solely on the employer. It is also a profound fact that the employer is deemed to be keen on maximizing the profits. To this effect, the employer would maximize the labor advantage gain from overtime work since it is not regulated by the government. This has the transcending effect of reducing the amount of pay that these employers pay to the employees who work overtime. It is also an astounding fact that working overtime is one virtue that the employee actually volunteer to do. Given the gist of reasoning, it is important to acknowledge the fact that proper regulations needs to be done in the advent of the payment of overtime in order to reduce the variations between the basic pay and the overtime pay (Williams &Adam-Smith, 2010). London as a region in England has been spotted to be the region of high level of total weekly pay to its employees than any other places in the region. This has been attributed to the fact that this region is an urban area. Hence, the movement of goods and services is quite high and this has the transcending affect of making sure that the cost of labor becomes quite high. At the advent of more productivity in the region, the level of economic activities has escalated. The cost of the labor force is deemed to increase due to the fact that most of the employer would want much labor force (Bewley et a, 2011). Thus, would be forced to increase the wage levels. That is why the high wage rate experienced in London is as a result of increase in the demand for labor. The number of hours available for working as stipulated by the employees gives forth a stance of similarity. Apart from the northern Ireland which records higher amount of hours worked to be around 39 hours, the other regions record a range of 37 to 38 hours worked. The main reason behind the small range is based on the fact that the regions fall under same climatic condition. This is coupled with the fact that climatic condition forms a factor of influence in the labor availability patterns. Thus, the labor patterns depicted in all these regions is deemed to be the same. Again the labor patterns adopted as an influence of climate creates a profound culture in the labor force such that they become resistant to change. It is imperative to note that political ambience of a region is quite influential in terms of labor working hours of the workforce. The regions have been in the limelight in maintaining a tranquil political atmosphere (Pessoa, & Van Reenen, 2013). This is based on the fact that these regions have a profound political structure which has been proven to be quite stable. Also, the working hours are deemed to be the same but having slight differences brought about by the rules and regulations on labor in respective regions. Conclusion It is evident that the labor force wage rates of these regions have been highly affected by the government intervention with the various labor unions in order to control the cost of labor. It is also quite imperative to note that the higher levels of wage rates depicted in the urban regions are due to the high level of productivity that is seen in these regions. The reason behind this notion is that most of the economic drivers in the urban areas are up to date and the economic activities are all time high. On the other hand, the labor demand becomes quite high and hence the employers have to compensate the labor force through the efforts they put into an organization. References Bewley, H., Riley, R., Kirby, S., Rincon-Aznar, A., & George, A. (2011). The introduction of Jobcentre Plus: An evaluation of labor market impacts. Bghton: Univeristy of Sussex. Chowdry, H., & Sianesi, B. (2011). Non-participation in the employment retention and advancement study: implications for the experimental fourth-year impact estimates. Sheffield: Department for Work and Pensions, Commercial Support and Knowledge Management Team Lipsey and Chrystal (2011): Chapters 11 (KLE). Office for National Statistics: Department of Enterprise, Trade and investment. (2011). Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings. Northern Ireland. Retrieved on 10th March 2015 from (http://www.ons.gov.uk/ons/datasets-and-tables/index.html?pageSize=50&sortBy=none&sortDirection=none&newquery=labor+weeklyearning+by+occupation &contenttype=Reference+table&content-type=Dataset&nscl=Labor+Market) Pessoa, J. P., & Van Reenen, J. (2013). The UK productivity and jobs puzzle: does the answer lie in labor market flexibility? UK: London School of Economics and Political Science. Williams and Adam-Smith (2010): Chapter 7, especially pp. 253 – 273. Read More