Unemployment Rates (Hansard, 18 March 1998)

§ Lord McIntosh of Haringey

The information requested falls within the responsibility of the Chief Executive of the Office for National Statistics, who has been asked to arrange for a reply to be given.

Letter to Lord Acton from the Director of the Office for National Statistics, Dr. T. Holt, dated 18 March 1998.

I have been asked to reply, as Director of the Office for National Statistics (ONS), to your recent question on the current rate of unemployment in (a) the United Kingdom, (b) Canada, (c) France, (d) Germany, (e) Italy, (f) Japan, and (g) the United States of America.

Figures based on the internationally recognised International Labour Organisation (ILO) definition of unemployment provide an appropriate basis for international comparisons. The ILO measure of unemployment, as derived from the Labour Force Survey, defines somebody as unemployed if they are without a job at the time of interview, were available to start work in the two weeks following their interview and had either looked for work in the four weeks prior to interview or were waiting to start a job they had already obtained. The ILO unemployment rate gives the number 202WA of the ILO unemployed as a percentage of the economically active.

Standardised unemployment rates are published monthly by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. These rates are calculated by taking the latest available ILO measure from each country's Labour Force Survey and projecting the results forward using recent movements in their particular administrative measure (the claimant count in the case of the UK).

The following table gives the information requested.

Seasonally Adjusted Standardised Unemployment Rates December 1997
	Rate (per cent.)
United Kingdom	6.6
Canada	8.6
France	12.3
Germany	10.0
Italy	12.1*
Japan	3.4
United States of America	4.7
Source:
OECD Main Economic Indicators monthly publication.
* A11 figures refer to December 1997 except Italy (October 1997).