Gera Local Workforce Profile — Methodology

1. What the GLWP measures

The Gera Local Workforce Profile (GLWP) is a composite index that positions each England lower-tier local authority (LTLA) relative to the England average (100) on three labour-market dimensions drawn entirely from ONS Census 2021 data:

• Occupation mix — the share of the employed population in high-skill occupations (SOC 2020 major groups 1, 2 and 3);
• Commute sustainability — the share using low/zero-emission or active travel modes (working from home, bicycle, on foot, train, bus/minibus/coach);
• Housing tenure — the share of households in owner-occupation (owned outright or with a mortgage/loan).

The index is intended as a labour-market context signal for job seekers and employers — it does not rank "quality of life" holistically and makes no value judgement about non-owner-occupied tenure or car commuting.

2. Source data

Three ONS Census 2021 topic-summary tables, obtained as bulk ZIP downloads from Nomis (nomisweb.co.uk/sources/census_2021_bulk) — no API key or registration required:

All tables share the same geographic universe: England lower-tier local authorities (LTLA) — metropolitan districts, unitary authorities, London boroughs, and non-metropolitan districts. Reference date: census night 21 March 2021. First published by ONS: 28 June 2022. Licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.

3. Formula

Step 1 — Compute percentage shares per LTLA

Step 2 — Index each share against England baseline

England national averages (Census 2021): highSkillPct = 46.5% · sustainPct = 47.5% · pctOwned = 61.3%.

Step 3 — Equal-weight composite

Each sub-index and the final GLWP are rounded to 1 decimal place. England = 100 by construction. An area with identical shares to England scores exactly 100.0 on every sub-index and 100.0 GLWP.

Observed range (Census 2021)

Highest: City of London — GLWP 142.6 (occ 180.2 · travel 188.2 · own 59.5).
Lowest: Boston — GLWP 68.5 (occ 57.2 · travel 52.2 · own 96.1).

4. Reproducibility

1. Download census2021-ts063.zip, census2021-ts061.zip and census2021-ts054.zip from Nomis (no login required).
2. Extract. Use the -ltla.csv file from each ZIP for local-authority figures, and the -ctry.csv file to obtain England baseline totals (row where geography = "England").
3. For each LTLA, compute highSkillPct, sustainPct and pctOwned as above. Divide by England baselines × 100 to get sub-indices. Average → GLWP.
4. Cross-check: England itself should return GLWP = 100.0 (it does, by definition, since the baselines are derived from the same England row). Any other row returning an index of exactly 100.0 has shares identical to the England average on all three dimensions.

The computation is deterministic — no random seeds, no ML, no interpolation. Given the same ONS source files, any third party can reproduce every number on every page to one decimal place.

5. Limitations

• Reference date: Census night 21 March 2021. Labour markets change; a high-GLWP area in 2021 may look different by 2025. The Gera Employment Index (ONS monthly series) provides more recent regional employment data.
• Geographic scope: England only. Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland held separate censuses; their data uses different boundaries and is not included.
• Equal weights: The three sub-indices are weighted equally. Users who prioritise one dimension (e.g. only occupation) should use the sub-index, not the GLWP composite.
• Denominators: The occupation (TS063) and travel-to-work (TS061) denominators are employed residents aged 16+; the tenure (TS054) denominator is total households. The populations partly overlap but are not identical.
• Small-area suppression: ONS applies cell suppression at output area level for disclosure control. The LTLA files used here are aggregated above the suppression threshold and contain no suppressed cells.

6. Licence

Source data: © Crown copyright and database right 2022. Licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0 (OGL v3.0). nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence/version/3/.

The Gera Local Workforce Profile composite index and methodology are published by GeraJobs (Gera Systems Ltd) and may be cited freely with attribution: "Gera Local Workforce Profile, GeraJobs (gerajobs.com/workforce-profile/methodology), computed from ONS Census 2021 under OGL v3.0."