Full time and part time employment

Published

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1. Main facts and figures

  • 77% of working age people (16 to 64 year olds) who were employed in 2021 worked full time, and 23% worked part time

  • employed people in the white ‘other’ (82%) and Indian (82%) ethnic groups were the most likely out of all ethnic groups to work full time

  • employed people in the combined Pakistani and Bangladeshi ethnic group (31%) were the most likely to work part time

  • between 2004 and 2021, people in the combined Pakistani and Bangladeshi ethnic group were consistently among the most likely to be employed part time

  • in 2021, men were more likely to be employed full time than women in every ethnic group

2. Things you need to know

What the data measures

The data measures the number and percentage of employed 16 to 64 year olds who were in full time and part time employment in their main job. The data covers England, Wales and Scotland.

In the Annual Population Survey, respondents decide if they are in part time or full time employment.

A person of working age is counted as employed if they either:

  • are in paid work, as an employee or self-employed
  • have a job that they are temporarily away from, for example on holiday
  • are on a government-supported training or employment programme
  • are doing unpaid family work, for example working in a family business

Percentages in the charts and tables are rounded to 1 decimal place, but have been worked out with unrounded figures. Totals in the download file have been rounded to the nearest 100.

Not included in the data

The data does not include estimates based on fewer than:

  • 30 survey respondents for data which includes all ethnic groups together
  • 100 survey respondents for data by ethnicity

This is to protect people’s confidentiality and because the numbers involved are too small to make reliable generalisations.

The ethnic categories used in this data

The data uses the ethnic categories from the 2011 Census.

Data is aggregated for the black, mixed and ‘other’ ethnic groups, which means estimates are shown for these groups as a whole.

Data is shown separately for the white British and white ‘other’ ethnic groups. Separate figures are also shown for 3 different Asian ethnic groups (Indian, Pakistani and Bangladeshi combined, and Asian ‘other’).

People whose ethnicity is not known are included in the figures for ‘All’.

Methodology

Read the detailed methodology document for this data.

The Annual Population Survey updated its ethnicity questions in 2011. As a result, estimates from before and after 2011 may not be consistent, and data for individual ethnic groups in 2011 is not available.

The figures on this page are based on survey data. Find out more about:

In the data file

See Download the data for:

  • estimates by region, and by region and sex for all ethnic groups
  • confidence intervals for each ethnic group – see how we use confidence intervals to demonstrate the reliability of survey estimates
  • sample sizes
  • estimates rounded to 1 decimal place
  • estimates for employed people who did not report whether they worked full time or part time

3. By ethnicity

Percentage and number of employed 16 to 64 year olds who were in full time and part time employment, by ethnicity
Full-Time Part-Time
Ethnicity Full-Time % Full-Time Number Part-Time % Part-Time Number
All 77 23,090,600 23 6,894,900
Asian 78 1,681,600 22 486,100
Indian 82 775,700 18 166,700
Pakistani and Bangladeshi 69 444,100 31 200,800
Any Other Asian Background 80 461,800 20 118,600
Black 75 730,000 24 236,600
Mixed 77 342,600 23 102,500
White 77 19,944,500 23 5,944,800
White British 76 17,894,200 24 5,507,300
White Other 82 2,050,200 18 437,500
Other 76 376,800 24 118,200

Download table data for ‘By ethnicity’ (CSV) Source data for ‘By ethnicity’ (CSV)

Summary of Full time and part time employment By ethnicity Summary

The data shows that:

  • 77% of working age people (16 to 64 year olds) who were employed in 2021 worked full time, and 23% worked part time

  • employed people in the white ‘other’ (82%) and Indian (82%) ethnic groups were the most likely out of all ethnic groups to work full time

  • employed people in the combined Pakistani and Bangladeshi ethnic group (31%) were the most likely to work part time

4. By ethnicity over time (full time only)

Percentage of employed 16 to 64 year olds who were in full time employment, by ethnicity over time
Ethnicity 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021
% % % % % % % % % % % % % % % % % %
All 75 75 76 76 75 75 74 74 74 74 74 74 75 75 75 75 76 77
Asian 76 76 77 76 76 73 72 not collected 72 74 73 74 75 74 75 75 76 78
Indian 78 79 80 80 80 79 79 not collected 77 78 79 80 81 79 82 81 81 82
Pakistani and Bangladeshi 72 71 72 73 70 66 63 not collected 66 67 68 67 71 68 69 69 69 69
Any Other Asian Background 76 76 76 73 74 71 71 not collected 71 74 70 72 72 74 73 73 76 80
Black 76 76 76 75 76 75 72 not collected 72 71 69 70 70 71 72 72 73 75
Mixed 74 74 73 72 75 74 73 not collected 71 69 71 67 69 69 73 74 71 77
White 75 75 76 75 75 75 74 not collected 74 74 75 75 75 75 75 75 76 77
White British 75 75 75 75 75 74 74 not collected 74 74 74 74 74 74 75 75 76 76
White Other 79 80 81 81 82 79 79 not collected 80 79 80 80 81 80 82 82 82 82
Other 76 77 76 77 78 75 71 not collected 72 73 72 69 71 75 72 73 76 76

Download table data for ‘By ethnicity over time (full time only)’ (CSV) Source data for ‘By ethnicity over time (full time only)’ (CSV)

Summary of Full time and part time employment By ethnicity over time (full time only) Summary

The data shows that:

  • between 2004 and 2021, the percentage of employed 16 to 64 year olds who worked full time ranged from 74% to 77%

  • employed people in the white ‘other’ and Indian ethnic groups were consistently the most likely to be in full time employment

  • employed people in the combined Pakistani and Bangladeshi ethnic group were consistently the least likely to be in full time employment

  • between 2020 and 2021, the percentage of employed people in the mixed ethnic group who worked full time went up from 71% to 77% – the biggest increase out of all ethnic groups

5. By ethnicity over time (part time only)

Percentage of employed 16 to 64 year olds who were in part time employment, by ethnicity over time
Ethnicity 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021
% % % % % % % % % % % % % % % % % %
All 25 25 24 24 24 25 26 26 26 26 26 26 25 25 25 25 24 23
Asian 24 24 23 24 24 27 27 not collected 28 26 27 26 25 26 25 25 24 22
Indian 21 21 20 20 20 21 21 not collected 23 22 21 20 19 21 18 19 19 18
Pakistani and Bangladeshi 27 29 28 27 29 33 37 not collected 33 33 32 32 29 32 31 31 31 31
Any Other Asian Background 24 24 24 26 26 29 29 not collected 29 26 29 28 28 26 27 27 24 20
Black 23 24 24 24 24 25 27 not collected 28 29 30 29 29 29 28 27 27 24
Mixed 26 26 27 28 25 26 26 not collected 28 31 28 32 31 31 27 26 29 23
White 25 25 24 24 24 25 26 not collected 26 26 25 25 25 25 25 25 24 23
White British 25 25 25 25 25 26 26 not collected 26 26 26 26 26 25 25 25 24 24
White Other 21 20 19 18 18 21 20 not collected 19 20 19 20 19 20 18 18 18 18
Other 24 23 23 22 22 25 28 not collected 28 27 28 31 29 25 28 26 24 24

Download table data for ‘By ethnicity over time (part time only)’ (CSV) Source data for ‘By ethnicity over time (part time only)’ (CSV)

Summary of Full time and part time employment By ethnicity over time (part time only) Summary

The data shows that:

  • between 2004 and 2021, the percentage of employed 16 to 64 year olds who worked part time ranged from 23% to 26%

  • people in the combined Pakistani and Bangladeshi ethnic group were consistently among the most likely to be employed part time

  • between 2020 and 2021, the percentage of employed people in the mixed ethnic group who worked part time went down from 29% to 23% – the biggest decrease out of all ethnic groups

6. By ethnicity and gender

Percentage and number of employed 16 to 64 year olds who were in full time and part time employment, by ethnicity and gender
Men Women
Ethnicity Men % Full time Men Number Full time Men % Part time Men Number Part time Women % Full time Women Number Full time Women % Part time Women Number Part time
All 89 13,921,100 11 1,675,000 64 9,169,500 36 5,220,000
Asian 86 1,054,800 14 166,500 66 626,800 34 319,600
Black 87 385,200 12 54,900 65 344,800 35 181,700
Mixed 85 189,200 15 33,500 69 153,400 31 69,000
White 90 12,055,800 10 1,373,800 63 7,888,700 37 4,571,000
Other 84 229,100 16 42,800 66 147,700 34 75,400

Download table data for ‘By ethnicity and gender’ (CSV) Source data for ‘By ethnicity and gender’ (CSV)

Summary of Full time and part time employment By ethnicity and gender Summary

The data shows that, among working age people in employment:

  • men were more likely to work full time than women in every ethnic group

  • white men (90%) were more likely to work full time than men from the Asian (86%), black (87%) and ‘other’ (84%) ethnic groups

  • although there is a 6 percentage point difference between white women (69%) and women in the mixed ethnic group (63%) working full time, this difference is not meaningful – no ethnic group was more likely to work full time than the others

7. Data sources

Source

Type of data

Survey data

Type of statistic

National Statistics

Publisher

Office for National Statistics

Note on corrections or updates

Higher-level figures may differ from those published by the Department for Work and Pensions and the Office for National Statistics that use the Labour Force Survey.

Publication frequency

Yearly

Purpose of data source

The Annual Population Survey (APS) is the largest ongoing household survey in the UK and covers a range of topics, including:

  • personal characteristics
  • labour market status
  • work characteristics
  • education
  • health

The purpose of the APS is to provide information on important social and socio-economic variables at local levels, such as labour market estimates.

The published statistics also allow the government to monitor estimates on a range of issues between censuses.

8. Download the data

Employment by Full-time and Part-time (2021) - Spreadsheet (csv) 2 MB

This file contains the following: Measure, Employment_type, Ethnicity, Ethnicity_type, Time, Time_Type, Region, Sex, Value, Value_type, Confidence_interval, Numerator, Denominator, Sample_size