FOI request: FOI-2025-3045
You asked
Recent figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) revealed UK unemployment rose to 4.7% in the three months to May, the highest it’s been in four years.
Can you explain your method of “Unemployment” statistics given Universal Credit isn’t unemployment benefit “Jobseekers Allowance” and any other data used and it’s source(s).
We said
Thank you for your request regarding the production of unemployment statistics in the UK.
Our unemployment statistics come from the Labour Force Survey, which is based on interviews with people resident in households in the UK. It does not make any use of administrative data in arriving at the estimates of unemployment.
The survey achieves a response of approximately 70,000 individuals each quarter.
Respondents are first asked questions about any paid work that they may do, for themselves or others, plus any other forms of work that constitute employment under the International Labour Organisation (ILO) definition.
Those that do not meet the international definition of employment are asked about any work search activities they may have carried out, and their availability to work, if there was work available. These questions are to test whether they meet the ILO definition of unemployment.
Those that do not meet either the definition of employment or unemployment are considered to be economically inactive, or outside of the labour force.
In addition, the survey collects a range of demographic information, classification information relating to any work done, information on work search and any reason why someone was not working or looking for work. The survey also collects a range of labour market adjacent information, to better understand the work landscape.
This approach is consistent with national statistics offices across the world, who produce labour market measures for their countries based on their own labour force surveys, asking questions to test which labour market status best classifies an individual.
Survey responses are weighted to population totals, within calibration classes, using household population information derived from published population estimates and projections.
The unemployment rate is the proportion of the economically active, that is the employed and unemployed combined, who are unemployed. It is not a proportion of the population. The rate reflects the proportion of people who offered their labour to the labour market, but were not able to find employment. Again, this unemployment rate is in line with the international standard definition.