Unemployment
The Office for National Statistics (ONS) publish two regular and complementary measures which give indications as to the level of unemployment.
Firstly, there is the official estimate of unemployment based on results from the Labour Force Survey following the internationally agreed definition recommended by the International Labour Organisation (ILO) - an agency of the United Nations. Unemployed people are:
- Without a job, want a job, have actively sought work in the last four weeks and are available to start work in the next two weeks or;
- Out of work, have found a job and are waiting to start it in the next two weeks.
Secondly, there is the claimant count, which is a timely and regular indicator of the number claiming Jobseeker's Allowance (JSA). It is particularly useful as an up-to-date indicator of latest unemployment trends.
Please note that from August 2010 there has been a change to the definition of working age population to include females aged 60 to 64. This means that female and total claimant count proportions will have been adjusted downwards. This has also been applied retrospectively to historic data.
National and regional ILO and claimant count unemployment data is published on the middle Wednesday of each month as part of the Monthly press release on Labour Market Statistics from the ONS. This press release is available by selecting the link entitled Monthly press release on Labour Market Statistics from ONS (on the right hand side of the screen).
Claimant count data at county, district and ward level is published on the NOMIS website, which is available by selecting the link entitled NOMIS (on the right hand side of the screen).
Hertfordshire County Council produce monthly and quarterly unemployment bulletins which are available below. These summarise claimant count data for Hertfordshire.
Monthly claimant count data at district level and Quarterly claimant count data at ward level are available for Hertfordshire below.
Results on Economic activity, which includes unemployment, from the 2001 Census are available on hertsdirect.org by selecting the link entitled Economic activity results from the 2001 census (on the right hand side of the screen).
This page last updated: 18-08-2010