U25866 Statistics for Economics- Assignment 1
Is the UK becoming a “long working hours” society?
You have been asked to complete some research on working hours in the UK and how they have changed over the 25 years. You have found the following data on usual weekly hours worked in Labour Market Statistics published by the Office for National Statistics.
Number of workers (thousands) by usual working hours per week in the three months March-May in 1993 and 2018
| Usual working hours | Mar-May 1993 | Mar-May 2018 |
| Less than 6 Hours | 524 | 424 |
| 6 up to 16 hours | 2,034 | 2,090 |
| 16 up to 31 hours | 3,543 | 6,456 |
| 31 up to 45 hours | 12,997 | 17,512 |
| Over 45 hours* | 6,188 | 5,916 |
| 25,286 | 32,398 |
Source: Labour Market Statistics, July 2018
*Assume an upper limit of 60 hours per week
Write a short report of 750 words describing how the distribution of working hours has changed in the UK between 1993 and 2018. What factors might account for your findings?
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You will be expected to use a range of descriptive statistics relating to the central tendency and variability of the data. The following news reports might help you explain how working hours in the UK have been changing in recent decades.
https://www.independent.co.uk/money/spend-save/uk-people-unpaid-work-hours-year-british-workers-a8266676.html
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/men-working-full-time-part-time-resolution-foundation-employment-economy-labour-force-money-a8158786.html
https://www.theguardian.com/money/2017/sep/16/part-time-working-revolution-people-want-family-social-life
https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/what-is-the-working-time-directive-the-eu-rule-some-tories-want-to-scrap_uk_5a38f3bce4b0fc99878e8e7a
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/comment/burnout-britain-looms-as-gove-and-allies-plan-to-axe-working-time-directive-a8116381.html
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1281606/Forget-9-5-Britains-official-hours-8-33am-5-29pm–work-desks.html
Guidance notes
There is a strict word limit of 750 words for this report. However, this does not include text used in charts and tables or in showing your calculations.
The submission deadline for this piece of work is 23.55 on Friday 30th November 2018.
This assignment meets Learning Outcome 1 as set out in the Unit Handbook: Use graphical and numerical methods to identify the key messages contained in economic data.
This is the first of two coursework assignments for this unit. Each will count 20% to your final grade, with the coursework portfolio overall contributing 40% to the final grade.
You must submit an electronic copy of your work to the appropriate coursework drop box via Turnitin on the unit Moodle page. Submission instructions are on Moodle and you will be reminded of these in seminars and lectures.
It is important you show your calculations to support your results. You may wish to include these in an Appendix to your report.
This work is to be completed individually, and should you be found to be replicating the work of others you may have committed an assessment offence.
Please use Arial size 12 font with 1.5 line spacing. It is ok to insert scanned copies of your workings, tables and charts into your submission document. Page numbers should be in the footer.
Work is marked anonymously, so please do not include your name in the document. You should identify your work by placing your student ID number in the header of the document. When you submit your work this student ID should be easy to identify in the file name.
This assignment is based on the methods introduced in Lectures 2 and 3 on Descriptive Statistics. Please also refer to the worked examples and exercises used in the corresponding seminars. You may also wish to refer to Chapter 1 of the recommended textbook Barrow, M, 2017, Statistics for Economics, Accounting and Business Studies (7th edition), Pearson.
You will receive a provisional grade and feedback on your work 20 working days after the submission deadline. You will be alerted via Moodle when these are available.
Work submitted within 20 days of the submission deadline, but without a valid Extenuating Circumstances Form (ECF) will still be marked, but will be capped at the unit pass mark of 40%. Work submitted more than 20 days after the submission deadline will receive a grade of 0%.
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Grade criteria
The following generic criteria will be used to assess your work
| Grade | Criteria |
| 70+ | As below plus: excellent, clearly written, well-presented work that thoroughly covers the subject thoughtfully & competently; shows originality of approach, insight or synthesis; very good use & presentation of results, precise calculations and workings; excellent presentation, organization, grammar, spelling, punctuation, and use of diagrams and tables. |
| 60-69 | As below plus: very good, well-presented work covering much of the subject matter, clearly and lucidly written; very good attempt to produce accurate results supported by detailed workings; very good organization, structure, use & flow of language, grammar, spelling, format, diagrams, tables etc. |
| 50-59 | As below plus: satisfactorily demonstrates understanding with some attempt at critical understanding; evidence of basic statistical techniques and how to apply them; attempt to follow directions regarding organization, structure, use & flow of language, grammar, spelling, format, presentation / use of diagrams and/or tables etc. |
| 40-49 | Adequate work which attempts to address the topic with limited understanding & analysis. Some use of basic statistics and attempt to show workings. An attempt to follow directions regarding organization, structure, use & flow of language, grammar, spelling, format, diagrams, tables etc. |
| 30-39 | FAIL. Inadequate in most or all of the following: length, content, structure, analysis, expression, accuracy, showing of workings and presentation. | Attempts to address the question/problem but is substantially incomplete and deficient. | Serious problems with a number of aspects of language use. |
| 0-29 | FAIL. No serious attempt to address the question or problem, and/or manifests a serious misunderstanding of the requirements of the assignment. Acutely deficient in all aspects. |