Unemployment (Hansard, 22 May 1997)

§ Mrs. Liddell

The information requested falls within the responsibility of the Chief Executive of the Office for National Statistics. I have asked him to arrange a reply to be given.

Letter from Tim Holt to Mr. Dale Campbell-Savours, dated 22 May 1997: The Chancellor of the Exchequer has asked me to reply as the Director of the Office for National Statistics (ONS) to your recent question on the current level of unemployment in the United Kingdom (a) numerically and (b) in percentage terms. ONS produce two measures of unemployment. The first, derived from the quarterly Labour Force Survey (LFS), is defined on a consistent and internationally recognised basis set out by the International Labour Organisation (ILO) and counts as unemployed people who are: a) without a paid job; b) available to start work within the next two weeks and c) have either looked for work in the last four weeks or are waiting to start a job already obtained. The other measure of unemployment; the monthly claimant count, is based on the administrative system and includes all people claiming unemployment-related benefits (i.e. Jobseekers Allowance, Income Support or National Insurance credits) at Employment Service offices on the day of the monthly count, who on that day had signed on as unemployed and available to do any suitable work. Essentially, all people who attend an Employment Service office to sign are counted, irrespective of whether they are actually receiving benefit. The latest ILO figures relate to winter 1996/97 (December to February). These show that in Great Britain, the seasonally adjusted number of unemployed people was 2,111,000 or 7.5 per cent of the workforce. In April 1997, seasonally adjusted claimant unemployment in the United Kingdom was 1,651,400 or 5.9 per cent of the workforce. Although the methods of calculation and the levels of those two series differ, they indicate broadly consistent rates of underlying change in unemployment.