§ Mr. RedmondTo ask the Secretary of State for Employment if he will make a statement on the note on chart 4A in his booklet produced jointly with the Treasury, "The UK Approach" for distribution at the Detroit G7 jobs summit, that "Definition of unemployment changes slightly through period covered"; and if he will make a statement.
§ Miss WiddecombeThe chart in question shows United Kingdom unemployment under two definitions. From 1948 onwards, the United Kingdom unemployment rate represented the number registering as unemployed at employment exchanges and youth employment service careers offices, as a percentage of these registered unemployed plus the total number of employees in employment. These are the rates shown in the chart between 1949 and 1970.
When, in 1982, the Rayner review led to registration becoming voluntary and thereby threatened the integrity of official statistics, the basis of the count was changed to become a count of those claiming unemployment-related benefits at Employment Service local offices.
In order to ensure that this series remains a valid economic indicator, Employment Department statisticians compile a seasonally adjusted claimant unemployment series with a coverage which is consistent with current eligibility criteria. The unemployment rate derived from this series, which goes back to 1971, represents the number of unemployed claimants as a percentage of the claimant unemployed plus employees in employment, self employed, HM forces, and people on work-related Government training programmes. These rates from the consistent seasonally adjusted series appear in the chart from 1971 onwards.