Local Government Candidates Survey 2022

A voluntary demographic survey of candidates running in the Scottish Local Government elections of 2022


11. Employment status

Candidates were asked to describe their current employment situation apart from or in addition to any work they may currently do as a councillor. These results were then aggregated into three categories following conventions set by the International Labour Organisation[10], namely ILO employed, unemployed and inactive.

The results in figure 19 below suggest that the majority of respondents (66%) were employed at the time of the survey in some form of work (separate to being a councillor), with 33% inactive (reasons for inactivity include being retired, a student, full-time carers amongst others) and the remainder (approximately 1%) were unemployed, other or unknown.

Figure 19: ILO employment status of respondents

Bar chart visualising proportion of respondents split by employment status. The chart shows that the majority of respondents were employed.

Compared to the population as a whole, the survey respondents were less likely to be inactive (by 7 percentage points) or unemployed (by 1 percentage point) and more likely to be in employment (8 percentage points) (Figure 20).

Figure 20: ILO employment status of respondents compared to overall Scottish population

Bar chart visualising the percentage difference between respondents and the Scottish population with regards to employment status. The chart shows that there was a higher percentage of respondents in employment and lower levels in active or unemployed compared to the Scottish population.

Comparing the employment profiles of successfully elected candidates as a group versus those who were not elected suggests that there is not a significant difference, with approximately similar numbers being employed, inactive or unemployed between both groups (Figure 21).

Figure 21: Electoral outcome by ILO employment status

Bar chart visualising employment status of respondents split by electoral outcome (i.e. who was successfully elected). Chart shows that the majority of individuals who were successfully elected were employed.

Contact

Email: Arfan.Iqbal@Gov.Scot

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