Modelled estimates of the proportion of the workforce self-isolating because of coronavirus (COVID-19) by work sector and modelled estimates of the proportion of the working age population (regardless of employment status) self-isolating because of COVID-19 by country.

As of the third quarter of 2025, there were around 4.39 million self-employed workers in the United Kingdom. During this provided time period, self-employment in the UK has grown steadily, from 3.2 million in December 2000 to a peak of over five million at the end of 2019. After the COVID-19 pandemic, however, self-employment has fallen to levels not seen since the middle of 2015 and has struggled to recover to its pre-pandemic peak. Demographics of the self-employed There has consistently been more men self-employed than women in the UK, with recent figures showing that over 2.8 million men and over 1.5 million women were self-employed. As of 2024, the most likely age group to be self-employed were those aged 65 or over, with over a third of workers in this age group self-employed. In the same year, around 16.5 percent of workers in London were self-employed, compared with the UK average of 13.1 percent, making London the region with the highest rate of self-employment in the UK. Self-employment support scheme In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the UK government unveiled various measures to mitigate the economic costs to businesses and individuals. For self-employed workers, this manifested itself as the Self-Employment Income-Support Scheme, which was in its third iteration, or tranche, by December 2020. During the first tranche, which ran from March to July, there were 2.7 million claims made in total, with claims to the second and third tranches numbering 2.4 million and 1.7 million, respectively. As of December 13, 2020, the overall value of these claims amounted to 14.5 billion British pounds.

The Family Resources Survey (FRS) has been running continuously since 1992 to meet the information needs of the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP). It is almost wholly funded by DWP.

The FRS collects information from a large, and representative sample of private households in the United Kingdom (prior to 2002, it covered Great Britain only). The interview year runs from April to March.

The focus of the survey is on income, and how much comes from the many possible sources (such as employee earnings, self-employed earnings or profits from businesses, and dividends; individual pensions; state benefits, including Universal Credit and the State Pension; and other sources such as savings and investments). Specific items of expenditure, such as rent or mortgage, Council Tax and water bills, are also covered.

Many other topics are covered and the dataset has a very wide range of personal characteristics, at the adult or child, family and then household levels. These include education, caring, childcare and disability. The dataset also captures material deprivation, household food security and (new for 2021/22) household food bank usage.

The FRS is a national statistic whose results are published on the gov.uk website. It is also possible to create your own tables from FRS data, using DWP’s Stat Xplore tool. Further information can be found on the gov.uk Family Resources Survey webpage.

Secure Access FRS data
In addition to the standard End User Licence (EUL) version, Secure Access datasets, containing unrounded data and additional variables, are also available for FRS from 2005/06 onwards - see SN 9256. Prospective users of the Secure Access version of the FRS will need to fulfil additional requirements beyond those associated with the EUL datasets. Full details of the application requirements are available from http://ukdataservice.ac.uk/media/178323/secure_frs_application_guidance.pdf" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Guidance on applying for the Family Resources Survey: Secure Access.

FRS, HBAI and PI
The FRS underpins the related Households Below Average Income (HBAI) dataset, which focuses on poverty in the UK, and the related Pensioners' Incomes (PI) dataset. The EUL versions of HBAI and PI are held under SNs 5828 and 8503, respectively. The Secure Access versions are held under SN 7196 and 9257 (see above).

FRS 2022-23

The impact of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic on the FRS 2022-23 survey was much reduced when compared with the two previous survey years. Throughout the year, there was a gradual return to pre-pandemic fieldwork practices, with the majority of interviews being conducted in face-to-face mode. The achieved sample was just over 25,000 households. Users are advised to consult the FRS 2022-23 Background Information and Methodology document for detailed information on changes, developments and issues related to the 2022-23 FRS data set and publication. Alongside the usual topics covered, the 2022-2023 FRS also includes variables for Cost of Living support, including those on certain state benefits; energy bill support; and Council Tax support. See documentation for further details.

FRS 2021-22 and 2020-21 and the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic

The coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic has impacted the FRS 2021-22 and 2020-21 data collection in the following ways:

• In 2020-21, fieldwork operations for the FRS were rapidly changed in response to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic and the introduction of national lockdown restrictions. The established face-to-face interviewing approach employed on the FRS was suspended and replaced with telephone interviewing for the whole of the 2020-21 survey year.

• This change impacted both the size and composition of the achieved sample. This shift in mode of interview has been accompanied by a substantial reduction in the number of interviews achieved: just over 10,000 interviews were achieved this year, compared with 19,000 to 20,000 in a typical FRS year. While we made every effort to address additional biases identified (e.g. by altering our weighting regime), some residual bias remains. Please see the FRS 2020-21 Background Information and Methodology document for more information.
• The FRS team have published a technical report for the 2020-21 survey, which provides a full assessment of the impact of the pandemic on the statistics. In line with the Statistics Code of Practice, this is designed to assist users with interpreting the data and to aid transparency over decisions and data quality issues.

• In 2021-22, the interview mode was largely telephone, with partial return to face-to-face interviews towards end of survey year. The achieved sample was over 16,000 households. This is a return towards the number expected in a normal survey year (around 20,000 households).
• In both survey years, there remain areas where users are advised to exercise caution when making comparisons to other survey years. More details on how the results for the 2020 to 2021 and 2021-22 survey years were affected by the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic can be found in the FRS 2020 to 2021 Background Information and Methodology and FRS 2021 to 2022 Background Information and Methodology.

The FRS team are seeking users' feedback on the 2020-21 and 2021-22 FRS. Given the breadth of groups covered by the FRS data, it has not been possible for DWP statisticians to assess or validate every breakdown which is of interest to external researchers and users. Therefore, the FRS team are inviting users to let them know of any insights you may have relating to data quality or trends when analysing these data for your area of interest. Please send any feedback directly to the FRS Team Inbox: team.frs@dwp.gov.uk

Latest edition information

For the second edition (May 2025), the data were redeposited. The following changes have been made:

• An ONS-delivered fix to the highest level of qualification (EDUCQUAL) which for several adults had been erroneously recorded.
• For ESA (benefit 16 on the BENEFITS table) the associated VAR3 has now been populated using ESA admin data, to show whether cases are Support Group etc.
• For Pension Credit recipients (benefit 4 on the BENEFITS table) adding the low-income benefits and tax credits Cost of Living Payment as benefit 124; with its flag CLPAYIRB set on the ADULT table.

As of the first quarter of 2025, approximately 13.5 percent of workers in the United Kingdom were self-employed, a significant fall compared with 2019 when the self-employment rate reached a peak of 15.3 percent, just before the arrival of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Interview data with self-employed individuals in Britain during COVID-19 lockdowns.

As of January 31, 2021 there had been approximately **** million claims made to the United Kingdom's third self-employment support scheme, a scheme launched to protect the incomes of the self-employed during the Coronavirus pandemic, following the conclusion of the first and second schemes in 2020.

As of July 19, 2020, the cost of the United Kingdom's first self-employment support scheme was estimated to be *** billion British pounds, with the scheme supporting *** million self-employed jobs effected by the Coronavirus pandemic by this date. The second tranche, launched in August 2020 had already reached a cost of *** billion pounds by October 18, 2020, with the third tranche costing around *** billion by the end of January 2021.

Estimates of the prevalence of self-reported long COVID and associated activity limitation by employment status, using UK Coronavirus (COVID-19) Infection Survey data: additional data for the 4 August 2022 release. Experimental Statistics.

This dataset represents employment, occupation and industry data from Census 2021 by a usual resident’s passport held.

Occupation is classified using the Standard Occupation Classification 2020 version. Industry is classified using the Standard Industrial Classifications 2007 version.

Population estimates in this spreadsheet are individually rounded to the nearest 5 and percentages to 1 decimal place. Estimates may not sum due to this rounding.

Quality information can be found here

Census 2021 took place during the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, a period of unparalleled and rapid change; the national lockdown, associated guidance and furlough measures will have affected the labour market topic. For more information please refer to this article

Economically active

People aged 16 years and over who are an active participant in the labour market between 15 and 21 March 2021, as they were:

• in employment as an employee or self-employed
• unemployed, but looking for work and could start within two weeks
• unemployed, but waiting to start a job that has been offered and accepted

Economically inactive

People aged 16 years and over who did not have a job between 15 and 21 March 2021 and had not looked for work between 22 February and 21 March 2021 or could not start work within two weeks.

Age

This is someone’s age on their last birthday on Census Day, 21 March 2021 in England and Wales.

Disabled

People who assessed their day-to-day activities as limited by long-term physical or mental health conditions or illnesses are considered disabled. This definition of a disabled person meets the harmonised standard for measuring disability and is in line with the Equality Act (2010).

For more definitions please check this summary glossary.

The introduction of social distancing, as part of efforts to try and curb the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic, has brought about drastic disruption to the world of the performing arts. In the UK the majority of professional orchestral musicians are freelance and therefore self-employed. These players, previously engaged in enjoyable, busy, successful, portfolio careers, are currently unable to earn a living carrying out their everyday work of performing music, and their future working lives are surrounded by great uncertainty. The aim of the present study was to examine how established professional musicians are experiencing this period, and to look for similarities and differences between the experiences of musicians in the middle of their performing careers (aged 35–45), with those of older players (aged 53 and over). Single semi-structured interviews were carried out over Zoom with 24 freelance, self-employed orchestral musicians; 12 mid-career musicians aged 35–45, and 12 seasoned musicians aged 53 and over. Thematic analysis identified themes common to both groups: the loss of a much-loved performing career, missing music making and colleagues, and anxiety about the future of the music profession. It also identified differences between the two groups: challenges to their identity as a musician, the extent of their anxiety about finances, the extent of their emotional distress, attitudes toward practicing and engaging in collaborative music making, and confusion over future career plans. Findings are discussed with reference to lifespan models of musicians' career development, the PERMA model of wellbeing, and the concept of resilience.

This dataset pertains to a research project investigating the social, cultural, and economic consequences of COVID19 on independent arts workers, specifically in the theatre sector, across England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland. The project recognised the unique vulnerability of this workforce in dealing with the impact of COVID19. Their workplaces closed overnight and their sector transformed as theatres moved to digital delivery, and their employment status (freelance) made them ineligible for the UK government’s Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme. The motivation of the project was to understand: the employment experiences of this workforce during the first 18 months of the pandemic; how the pandemic affected their planning for the future; how the pandemic changed their creative practices and skills; what impact government and sectoral policy had on the workforce; and to find strategies for government and industry to support this precarious workforce.

This data collection includes survey responses (n=397) to an online survey which ran from 23/11/2020 to 19/03/2021, and a database of policy events covering the period from the onset of the pandemic until 27/5/2022 (n=1353). This collection contains the survey data. The survey was run through the JISC surveys platform. It had 34 questions collecting a mixture of qualitative and quantitative data. Freeform text responses were alternated with multiple choice, multi-option and Likert scale. The survey captured data on theatre freelancers employment, emotional, and cultural experiences, the region(s) and setting(s) where they worked, and their age, gender identity, race, occupation(s).COVID-19 threatens the performing arts; closures of theatres and outlawing of public gatherings have proven financially devastating to the industry across the United Kingdom and, indeed, the world. The pandemic has sparked a wide range of industry-led strategies designed to alleviate financial consequences and improve audience capture amidst social distancing. COVID-19 has affected all levels of the sector but poses an existential threat to freelancers--Independent Arts Workers (IAWs)--who make up 60% of industry workforce in the UK (EU Labour Force Survey 2017). The crisis has put a spotlight on the vulnerable working conditions, economic sustainability, mental wellbeing, and community support networks of IAWs. IAWs are often overlooked by the industry and researchers, however it is their very precarity that makes them pioneers of adaptability responsible for key innovation within the sector. IAWs may prove essential for the industry's regrowth post-COVID-19. An investigation is necessary into the impact of COVID-19 on IAWs and the wide-ranging creative solutions developing within the industry to overcome them.

There has been increasing pressure to gather 'robust, real-time data' to investigate the financial, cultural, and social potential long-term consequences of COVID-19 on the UK theatre industry. The impact of the pandemic on IAWs is particularly complex and wide-ranging. A TRG Arts survey stated that 60% of IAWs predict their income will 'more than halve in 2020' while 50% have had 100% of their work cancelled. Industry researchers from TRG Arts and Theatres Trust have launched investigations examining the financial impact of COVID-19 on commercial venues and National Portfolio Organisations, but there has been insufficient research into the consequences for IAWs (eg. actors, directors, producers, writers, theatre makers, technicians) and the smaller SMEs beyond income loss and project cancellation data. In May 2020, Vicky Featherstone of the Royal Court Theatre, stated the importance of support for the 'massive freelance and self-employed workforce' she believed has been 'taken for granted' by the industry. Our study fills this gap by capturing and analysing not only the economic impact, but the social and cultural transformations caused by COVID-19 by and for IAWs. We will compare regional responses across England, Wales, Northern Ireland and Scotland as well as variations across racial and socio-economic groups. Our aims are to document and investigate the impact of COVID-19 on IAWs, identify inequalities in the sector, investigate changes in the type of work produced post-COVID-19, and help develop strategies for how the sector can move forward from this crisis. We will investigate connections between the financial consequences of COVID-19 and creative strategies for industry survival including social support networks, communication initiatives between arts venues and IAWs, and the development of mixed-media work in the wake of the pandemic.

BackgroundThere is an urgent need to better understand the factors that predict mental wellbeing in vocationally active adults during globally turbulent times.AimTo explore the relationship between psychological detachment from work (postulated as a key recovery activity from work) in the first national COVID-19 lockdown with health, wellbeing, and life satisfaction of working age-adults one year later, within the context of a global pandemic.MethodsWellbeing of the Workforce (WoW) was a prospective longitudinal cohort study, with two waves of data collection (Time 1, April-June 2020: T1 n = 337; Time 2, March-April 2021: T2 = 169) corresponding with the first and third national COVID-19 lockdowns in the UK. Participants were >18 years, who were employed or self-employed and working in the UK. Descriptive and parametric (t-tests and linear regression) and nonparametric (chi square tests) inferential statistics were employed.ResultsRisk for major depression (T1: 20.0% to T2: 29.0%, p = .002), poor general health (T1: 4.7% to T2: 0%, p = .002) and poor life satisfaction (T1: 15.4% to T2: 25.4%, p = .002) worsened over time, moderate-to-severe anxiety remained stable (T1: 26.1% to T2: 30.2%, p = .15). Low psychological detachment from work was more prevalent in the first wave (T1: 21.4% and T2: 16.0%), with a moderate improvement observed from T1 to T2 (t (129) = -7.09, p < .001). No differences were observed with work status (employed/self-employed), except for self-employed workers being more likely to report poor general health at T1 (16.1%, p = .002). Better psychological wellbeing, lower anxiety and higher life satisfaction at T2 were observed in those who reported better psychological detachment from work at T1 (β = .21, p = .01; β = -.43, p < .001; β = .32, p = .003, respectively), and in those who improved in this recovery activity from T1 to T2 (β = .36, p < .001; β = -.27, p < .001; β = .27, p = .008, respectively), controlling for age, gender and ethnicity.ConclusionThe ability to psychologically detach from work during the first pandemic lockdown, and improvement in this recovery activity over time, predicted better mental wellbeing and quality of life in vocationally active adults after one year of a global crisis, irrespective of work status. Interventions to encourage workers to psychologically detach from work may help to support employee wellbeing at all times, not only in the extreme circumstances of pandemics and economic uncertainty.

Dental Earnings and Expenses Estimates, 2019/20, provides a detailed study of the earnings and expenses of self-employed primary care dentists who undertook some NHS/Health Service work during the financial year. Figures relate to both NHS/Health Service and private dentistry and are shown for full-time and part-time dentists; some analysis by weekly working hours bandings are included using information from the biennial Dental Working Patterns Survey (and are included in the interactive report). Although the report contains analysis for England, Wales, Northern Ireland and Scotland, the values are not directly comparable between countries; this is due to differing contractual arrangements as well as the use of different methods to derive dental type in each country. The analyses throughout this report are based on anonymised tax data for dentists with accounting periods ending in the fourth quarter of 2019/20 and effective as of the end of March 2020. The tax data cover self-employed dental income from all sources, including from private dental practice. Data on earnings from employment or for those dentists in private practice only are not included. The report is primarily used as evidence in remuneration negotiations and by the Review Body for Doctors' and Dentists' Remuneration. It has been produced by NHS Digital in consultation with the Dental Working Group which includes representatives from the Department of Health and Social Care, NHS England and NHS Improvement, Welsh Government, Department of Health Northern Ireland, the Northern Ireland Health and Social Care Business Services Organisation, Scottish Government, NHS National Services Scotland: Information Services Division, NHS Business Services Authority Information Services, HMRC: Knowledge, Analysis and Intelligence Division, the National Association of Specialist Dental Accountants and Lawyers and the British Dental Association representing the views and interests of dentists. We welcome feedback on all of our publications. Please contact us with any comments and suggestions by email to PrimaryCareWorkforce@nhs.net stating Dental Earnings and Expenses Estimates in the subject line, or by telephone on 0300 303 567. The first cases of COVID-19 in the UK were confirmed late January 2020 and the first UK-wide lockdown was announced on 23 March. This was followed by an announcement from the chief dental officer for England on 25 March 2020 of the temporary suspension of all routine dentistry and many dental practices were able to offer little or no NHS treatment for some or much of the 2020/21 financial year. However, given the timing of the introduction of emergency lockdown measures, we have little evidence that the earnings and expenses estimates of NHS/Health Service primary care dentists were greatly affected by the COVID-19 pandemic during the 2019/20 financial year.

Dental Earnings and Expenses Estimates, 2022/23, provides a detailed study of the earnings and expenses of self-employed primary care dentists who undertook some NHS/Health Service work during the financial year. Figures relate to both NHS/Health Service and private dentistry and are shown for full-time and part-time dentists. Although the report contains analysis for England, Wales, Northern Ireland and Scotland, the values are not directly comparable between countries; this is due to differing contractual arrangements as well as the use of different methods to derive dental type in each country. The analyses throughout this report are based on anonymised tax data for dentists with accounting periods ending in the fourth quarter of 2022/23 and effective as of the end of March 2023. The tax data cover self-employed dental income from all sources, including from private dental practice. Data on earnings from employment or for those dentists in private practice only are not included. The report is primarily used as evidence in remuneration negotiations and by the Review Body for Doctors' and Dentists' Remuneration. It has been produced by NHS England in consultation with the Dental Working Group which includes representatives from the Department of Health and Social Care, NHS England, Welsh Government, Department of Health Northern Ireland, the Northern Ireland Health and Social Care Business Services Organisation, Scottish Government, NHS National Services Scotland: Information Services Division, NHS Business Services Authority Information Services, HMRC: Knowledge, Analysis and Intelligence Division, the National Association of Specialist Dental Accountants and Lawyers and the British Dental Association representing the views and interests of dentists. Analysis shown in the timeseries files for previous years includes breakdowns by weekly working hours bandings using information from the Dental Working Patterns Survey, however the Dental Working Patterns Survey was not run for 2020/21 and 2021/22 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and these data are not available for 2020/21 and 2021/22. The Covid-19 pandemic is likely to have impacted on earnings and expenses during 2020/21 and 2021/22. Please refer to the reports for these years for further details of Covid-19 arrangements. We welcome feedback on all of our publications. Please contact us with any comments and suggestions by email to PrimaryCareWorkforce@nhs.net stating Dental Earnings and Expenses Estimates in the subject line, or by telephone on 0300 303 567.

BackgroundThe COVID-19 pandemic has had enormous implications for the world of work. However, there has been relatively little focus on the employment and workforce challenges of the virus in relation to workforce health, beyond the immediate management of the spread of the disease. There is an important gap in understanding the ongoing workforce issues created by the significant incidence of Long COVID in the population.AimThis paper examines the effects of Long COVID on employment and workers’ mental health to contribute to understanding of work-limiting health conditions and to offer policy implications for COVID-19 and similar health conditions on employment and the workforce.MethodsA large national panel study for the UK is used to estimate the likelihood of exiting employment as well as on changes in working hours and general mental health and happiness of those who remain in work. The sample includes individuals 16 years and older who were in employment in January/February 2020 and followed during the pandemic 2020–2021. Long COVID is self-reported in the data. Informed by conceptual consideration of employment protection in the UK, two groups of individuals with Long COVID are defined based on the duration of symptoms. Group 1 has Long COVID 5–28 weeks after an infection with COVID-19, which is up to the maximum length of Statutory Sick Pay in the UK. Group 2 has symptoms for 29+ weeks, which is beyond the statutory entitlement to sickness pay. Panel regression models are fitted both with fixed-effects and random-effects. Individual and job characteristics are used as controls Those with no COVID-19 symptoms are the reference group.ResultsIn between-person comparison, Group 2 is at higher risk of exiting employment compared to those with no COVID-19 symptoms. Between-person estimates of mental health and well-being show negative effects of Long COVID for both groups but these are greatest in Group 2. Within-person estimates suggest that factors associated with earnings mediate the negative Long COVID effects on mental health in Group 1 and that Group 2 adapts to working with Long COVID. Group 1 is at risk of working zero hours (i.e. being on sick leave) but neither Group 1 nor Group 2 have a higher probability of working fewer hours compared to those with no COVID-19 symptoms. The negative impact of Long COVID on working hours stems primarily from working zero hours (sickness leave) rather than working fewer hours, suggesting a lack of accommodation by employers of Long COVID at work.Policy implicationsThe extension of Statutory Sickness Pay and greater flexibility to manage partial (returns to) work would help preserve employment and mental health. Those with Long COVID for 12 months are likely to meet the definition of disability and so have a right to receive reasonable workplace adjustments.

Understanding Society (the UK Household Longitudinal Study), which began in 2009, is conducted by the Institute for Social and Economic Research (ISER) at the University of Essex, and the survey research organisations Verian Group (formerly Kantar Public) and NatCen. It builds on and incorporates, the British Household Panel Survey (BHPS), which began in 1991. The Understanding Society: Calendar Year Dataset, 2021, is designed to enable cross-sectional analysis of individuals and households relating specifically to their annual interviews conducted in the year 2021, and, therefore, combine data collected in three waves (Waves 11, 12 and 13). It has been produced from the same data collected in the main Understanding Society study and released in the longitudinal datasets SN 6614 (End User Licence) and SN 6931 (Special Licence). Such cross-sectional analysis can, however, only involve variables that are collected in every wave in order to have data for the full sample panel. The 2021 dataset is the second of a series of planned Calendar Year Datasets to facilitate cross-sectional analysis of specific years. Full details of the Calendar Year Dataset sample structure (including why some individual interviews from 2022 are included), data structure and additional supporting information can be found in the document '9194_calendar_year_dataset_2020_user_guide'. As multi-topic studies, the purpose of Understanding Society is to understand the short- and long-term effects of social and economic change in the UK at the household and individual levels. The study has a strong emphasis on domains of family and social ties, employment, education, financial resources, and health. Understanding Society is an annual survey of each adult member of a nationally representative sample. The same individuals are re-interviewed in each wave approximately 12 months apart. When individuals move, they are followed within the UK, and anyone joining their households is also interviewed as long as they are living with them. The fieldwork period for a single wave is 24 months. Data collection uses computer-assisted personal interviewing (CAPI) and web interviews (from wave 7) and includes a telephone mop-up. From March 2020 (the end of wave 10 and 2nd year of wave 11), due to the coronavirus pandemic, face-to-face interviews were suspended, and the survey has been conducted by web and telephone only but otherwise has continued as before. One person completes the household questionnaire. Each person aged 16 or older participates in the individual adult interview and self-completed questionnaire. Youths aged 10 to 15 are asked to respond to a paper self-completion questionnaire. In 2020, an additional frequent web survey was separately issued to sample members to capture data on the rapid changes in people’s lives due to the COVID-19 pandemic (see SN 8644). The COVID-19 Survey data are not included in this dataset. Further information may be found on the Understanding Society main stage webpage and links to publications based on the study can be found on the Understanding Society Latest Research webpage. Co-funders In addition to the Economic and Social Research Council, co-funders for the study included the Department of Work and Pensions, the Department for Education, the Department for Transport, the Department of Culture, Media and Sport, the Department for Community and Local Government, the Department of Health, the Scottish Government, the Welsh Assembly Government, the Northern Ireland Executive, the Department of Environment and Rural Affairs, and the Food Standards Agency. End User Licence and Special Licence versions: There are two versions of the Calendar Year 2021 data. One is available under the standard End User Licence (EUL) agreement, and the other is a Special Licence (SL) version. The SL version contains month and year of birth variables instead of just age, more detailed country and occupation coding for a number of variables and various income variables have not been top-coded (see xxxx_eul_vs_sl_variable_differences for more details). Users are advised to first obtain the standard EUL version of the data to see if they are sufficient for their research requirements. The SL data have more restrictive access conditions; prospective users of the SL version will need to complete an extra application form and demonstrate to the data owners exactly why they need access to the additional variables in order to get permission to use that version. The main longitudinal versions of the Understanding Society study may be found under SNs 6614 (EUL) and 6931 (SL).

These data were collected using the HEartS Professional Survey II from performing arts workers in the United Kingdom in April–May 2021. HEartS Professional II is an adaptation of the HEartS Professional I survey which was used in April–June 2020 (https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.s7h44j14z). Both surveys were designed as multi-strategy data collection tools with two main purposes: (1) to chart working patterns, income, sources of support, and indicators of mental and social well-being in order to identify trends in the effects of the lockdown at the time and (2) to explore the individual work and wellbeing experiences of performing arts professionals in their own words, in order to identify the subjective effects of lockdown in terms of challenges and opportunities. The survey covers six areas: (1) demographics; (2) information on illness or self-isolation related to COVID-19; (3) work profiles and income; (4) changes to work profiles and income as a result of the pandemic, as well as sourc..., The sample was recruited through an online data collection platform, Qualtrics, from April to May 2021. Here we include the data set (N = 685) of completed surveys. The survey contains the following sections:Â

Demographic and socioeconomic information: Where available, standardised Census questions were used to collect data on ethnicity, geographic region, highest educational qualifications, gender, age, and household composition, and income.Â

Illness or self-isolation related to COVID-19: Newly created questions.Â

Work profiles and income: Newly created questions.Â

Changes to work profiles and income as a result of the pandemic and sources of support: Newly created questions and Inclusion of Other in Self Scale.Â

Open-response questions about work and well-being experiences of lockdown, including challenges and opportunities: Newly created questions (NB. data for the open questions are not included for confidentiality reasons).Â

Measures of health, well-being, and social connect..., In line with Dryad's human subjects data protection rules, some personal data have been removed from this file. Variables for which data have been omitted are marked with an asterisk in the Variables tab in the dataset. ,