Unemployment Comparisons (Hansard, 27 January 1997)

§ The Minister of State, Department of Social Security (Lord Mackay of Ardbrecknish)

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 National Statistics, Mr. Tim Holt, dated 27th January 1997.

I have been asked to reply as the Director of the Office for National Statistics to your recent parliamentary Question on the current rate of unemployment in the United Kingdom, the United States of America and Japan.

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 used in 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 of the ILO unemployed as a percentage of the economically active.

The latest available ILO unemployment rates are published by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. These show that the ILO unemployment rates in October 1996 were 7.9% for the UK, 5.2% for the USA and 3.4% for Japan.