Lord Oramasked Her Majesty's Government:
Whether they will set out the further changes in the methods of calculating and publishing statistics on unemployment subsequent to those which were described in a written answer to the Lord Oram on 6th October 1986.
§ The Secretary of State for Trade and Industry (Lord Young of Graffham)Since 6th October 1986 there have been no changes to the method of compiling the unemployment count, which continues to be based on the numbers claiming unemployment related benefits. The seasonally adjusted series has been maintained on a consistent basis, and now allows for the effect of September's change in benefit regulations for under 18 year-olds, as described in an article on page 660 of the December 1988 issue ofEmployment Gazette.
There was one minor amendment made in July 1988 to the calculation of national and regional unemployment rates, to include in the denominators those on work-related government training schemes in line with their inclusion in the statistics of the employed workforce, as described on page S6 of the August 1988 issue of Employment Gazette.