Title

Workplace based claimant count (seasonally adjusted)

Last update

20 Jan 2016 20 Jan 2016

Next update

Jan 2017

Publishing organisation

Welsh Government

Source 2

Labour Market Statistics, Office for National Statistics

Contact email

economic.stats@wales.gsi.gov.uk

Designation

Experimental statistics

Lowest level of geographical disaggregation

Wales

Geographical coverage

United Kingdom

Languages covered

English only

General description

This experimental series counts the number of people claiming Jobseeker's Allowance plus those who claim Universal Credit who are out of work and replaces the number of people claiming Jobseeker's Allowance as the headline indicator of the number of people claiming benefits principally for the reason of being unemployed. From May 2013 onwards these figures are not designated as National Statistics and are considered Experimental Statistics.

Data collection and calculation

The data are annual averages and are adjusted for seasonality and also to take account of past discontinuities in the data to be consistent with current coverage. Rates given in this dataset are workplace based.

Frequency of publication

Annual

Data reference periods

1971 to 2015

Rounding applied

All data are rounded to the nearest 5 and may not precisely add to the sum of the number of people claiming JSA, published on Nomis, and the number of out-of-work people claiming Universal Credit, published by DWP, due to independent rounding.

Statistical quality

There are two standard measures of unemployment used in official UK statistics the UK, namely the claimant count and the International Labour Organisation (ILO) unemployment measure. The measures are different and are each subject to advantages and disadvantages.
The former is a count of all persons claiming unemployment-related benefits. As such it is not subject to sampling variability and can therefore be disaggregated to very high levels of detail. However, it excludes those who are unemployed who are not eligible to claim (for example those out of work but whose partner works), and those who do not wish to claim.
The ILO measure, which is a count of those who are out of work and want a job, have actively sought work in the last 4 weeks and are available to start work in the next two weeks; plus those who are out of work, have found a job and are waiting to start in the next 2 weeks, is a more encompassing measure of unemployment. However, as the data come from a survey, the results are sample-based estimates and therefore subject to differing degrees of sampling variability, i.e. the true value for any measure lies in a differing range about the estimated value. This range or sampling variability increases as the detail in the data increases, for example local authority data are subject to higher variability than Wales data.
Please see the weblink to the data sources guide for further information.

Weblinks

www.nomisweb.co.uk;
Data sources guide: http://gov.wales/statistics-and-research/economic-labour-market-statistics-guide-data-sources-useful-links/

Keywords

Seasonally adjusted claimant count
Unemployment

Name

Econ0005