You asked
With regards to Table 15.1a Weekly pay - Gross (£) - For all employee jobs: United Kingdom, 2020.
Can you confirm no errors have been made in estimating the number of Health professionals?
The figures for Wales & Scotland seem very high - if for example there compared to Yorkshire & Humber (which has 90+ higher population than Scotland).
Description, jobs 000's.
UK Health professionals = 1,647,000
North East, Health professionals = 39,000
North West, Health professionals = 180,000
Yorkshire and The Humber, Health professionals = 100,000
East Midlands, Health professionals = 96,000
West Midlands, Health professionals = 121,000
East, Health professionals = 183,000
London, Health professionals =195,000
South East, Health professionals = 176,000
South West, Health professionals = 125,000
Wales, Health professionals = 87,000
Scotland, Health professionals = 261,000
We said
Thank you for your request.
We can confirm that no errors have been identified in Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings (ASHE) 2020.
Note that the ASHE is not designed specifically to produce an accurate estimate of number of jobs in each occupation. The weighting methodology utilises the strata of (the nine highest-level) occupation groups, combined with age, sex and region (London and the South East, versus the rest of the UK). In the case of health professional jobs (published estimate of 1,647,000 at UK level), the occupation calibration group is Professional occupations (6,188,000). You can see that health professionals account for less than 30% of this group, and the accuracy of the published number of jobs will reflect this; if response rates are relatively lower (or higher) among health employers in one or more region, the resulting estimates will be correspondingly lower (or higher).
However, the estimates of job numbers do have general robustness and consistency. Referencing back to 2018, for example, we see a similar pattern to 2020; there was an estimate of 207,000 health professionals in Scotland compared with 113,000 in Yorkshire.
Please note that ASHE covers employee jobs, and excludes self-employed. Details of the survey and methodology are provided in the following document: Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings, Low pay and Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings pension results QMI, published on the ONS website.