Run on contract for the Office for National Statistics by a team at the University of Durham. Everyone can use it free of charge, with the exception of the Annual Business Enquiry to which access is restricted.

It holds a variety of labour market statistics including detailed statistics on JSA claimants and Jobcentre Plus vacancies.

Enter the following address in the Internet Explorer address bar and click “Go”;

www.nomisweb.co.uk

On the home page there is a panel titled “Detailed Statistics”. You have the choice of using the “Wizard Query” option, which will guide you through the process, or “Advanced Query”. Here we will look at the latter.

Click on the “Advanced Query” option.

You are now in the “Login” page. Here you can either register or proceed as a visitor. If you register it will avoid you seeing this page on subsequent visits and give you access to some facilities, such as saving enquiries for re-use. Choose “Continue” or “Login” to move on.

Before starting a NOMIS query you have to be clear as to what you want. The following criteria have to be set, or left at their default value, when setting up a query. These vary among datasets but the main ones are;

Date – the date or dates for which you want information.

Rates/proportions – in some Claimant Count datasets an unemployment rate calculated on the proportion of resident working age population can be requested.

Sex – in some datasets gender based output can be requested.

Choose your dataset
Here you see the datasets available. In this brief guide we will only look at ;

“Claimant Count“ - counts of JSA claimants.

“Jobcentre Plus Vacancies”

However, the same principles apply to other datasets.

EXAMPLE 1
A typical type of query is what is the latest live JSA register for each office in a district (e.g. HICC&G).

Start by clicking on "Claimant Count". The theme will expand to show the list of datasets within it. You could choose "claimant count - age and duration" but, as this does not include claims being handled clerically, it would not count all claims. The better choice is "claimant count with rates and proportions", this includes all claims live on the count date.

Click on "claimant count with rates and proportions".

The criteria are listed down the left side and a summary is given in the middle. Look at "analysis". The default option “output data for a single date or range of dates” is selected. Click on "analysis" and the alternatives are shown.

In this case we want to use the default so click on "continue to use the current analysis".

Click on “date”

The most recent month available has been selected by default. You can select other months by checking and un-checking boxes. Alternatively you may select a range of months from the drop-down lists at the top of the page.

We are only interested in the current month so leave the default unchanged.

We have choices to make here. Make sure that “Select using list” is selected.

A number of geographical areas are shown but not Jobcentre Plus districts or jobcentres. To get district information click on "postcode/jobcentre/nuts” at the bottom of the page.

Among the choices are “Jobcentre Plus districts” and “Jobcentre Plus offices”. Click on the down arrow beside “Jobcentre Plus offices” and select “some”.

From the window at the top select the district you require. Unfortunately HICC&G has not yet been set up on NOMIS. We will have to select the relevant jobcentre from the pre June 05 districts. HICC&G consists of the old HICC district offices plus a group of offices from G&T.

First select “Highlands, Islands and Clyde Coast” from the drop down menu. As we want all the ex-HICC offices click “Select all” at the top of the list.

Now select “Grampian and Tayside” from the drop down menu. Here we must be selective. Fraserburgh, Peterhead, the Aberdeen offices and Banff are now in HICC&G so select them.

Click on “rates / proportions”

For some geographical areas eg countries & local authorities, but not jobcentres, this will provide percentage unemployment rates. The default for this setting is “no rates or proportions” so leave it as it is.

Click on “sex”.

If you wish you may select male/female/total claimant here. The default is “total”.

Click on “variable”

The default is “total”. Leave it at that.

Click on “review selections”

That should be everything set. Here you can check that the correct selections have been made. If necessary go back to the criteria and correct the selection.

Here NOMIS will offer you what it considers to be the best layout. You may change it if you wish. You must change the ”Data format” to something else. This option does not work with JCP computers. I suggest selecting “comma separated values” which will give you the data on something similar to an Excel spreadsheet.

Click on “download data”.

When the grey “file download” messages appear select “Open this file from its current location”.

The data appear on what looks like an excel spreadsheet. However it will not email or save in this format. Copy and paste it into an Excel spreadsheet.

SAVING THE QUERY
Having set up this query you can save it and run it again without having to change any of the criteria. Since we have use the default setting for the date every time the query is run it will give the most recent data.

To do this, provided you have not cleared the NOMIS screen, click “save” on the left under the other criteria and follow the on screen instructions.

EXAMPLE 2
Another fairly common query is to get the current stock of JSA claimants eligible for one or more of the New Deals for a district and it’s offices (e.g. Glasgow).

Click “new dataset” in the top left hand corner.

Again select “claimant count”.

JSA claimants qualify for New Deal primarily by their age and duration of claim so this time select “claimant count – age and duration (June 1985 etc.)”

SETTING THE CRITERIA
There is no need to change “analysis” as the default will suit.

Click on “age duration”. Here NOMIS has pre-defined some age and claim duration combinations. Select the appropriate combinations.

Leave “date” unchanged as we want the current (default) information.

Click “geography”. Select “postcode/jobcentre/nuts”. Click on the down arrow beside “Jobcentre Plus offices” and select “some”. Select “Glasgow”. Click on “select all”.

Click on “review selections” and check.

If the selections are correct “extract data” and “download” as before.

There are many other queries possible but these principles apply to all.

If you have any queries please contact;

Derek Connelly

Jobcentreplus Office for Scotland

Phone 0131 221 4230

Email DEREK.CONNELLY@JOBCENTREPLUS.GSI.GOV.UK