Guidance

Understanding a workforce's socio-economic background for change

This latest review helps employers understand the composition of their workforce, using key data to ensure a more inclusive workplace.

• From: Social Mobility Commission
• Published: 10 December 2020
• Last updated: 21 May 2021 — See all updates

Documents

Simplifying how employers measure socio-economic background: An accompanying report to new guidance

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Simplifying how employers measure socio-economic background: An accompanying report to new guidance

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Details

This report gives employers the latest tools and tips to analyse the socio-economic background of their workforces and build social inclusion into future recruitment strategies.

User friendly, practical and focused, it is essential for organisations committed to building diversity and developing talent from all sectors of the community.

Published 10 December 2020
Last updated 21 May 2021 + show all updates

1. 21 May 2021

   The original document about simplifying how employers measure socio-economic background was originally released in November 2020. In May 2021, we have been able to undertake a review of the national benchmark which provides a percentage breakdown of the socio-economic background of the overall UK workforce aged 16+. The document summarises a technical update implemented to the national benchmark of the UK working population in May 2021, as the result of additional analysis done by the Social Mobility Commission, the Creative Industries Policy and Evidence Centre (PEC) and the Office for National Statistics (ONS). The benchmark categories are created using the National Statistics Socio-economic Classification (NS-SEC) information on the Labour Force Survey (LFS). This was previously done by mapping the 3-digit Standard Occupation Classification (SOC) of the main wage earner in the LFS onto NS-SEC categories. The 3-digit codes have previously been used because the 4-digit SOC codes were not accessible in the publicly available LFS data, it has been standard practice to use the 3-digit codes. In collaboration with PEC and ONS we have gained access to the 4-digit codes and conducted some comparative analysis and found that the previous benchmark calculations overestimated the proportion of the workforce from lower socio-economic backgrounds and underestimated the proportion from professional backgrounds.

2. 10 December 2020

   First published.