---

Unemployment

Answer

The information requested falls within the responsibility of the UK Statistics Authority. I have asked the Authority to reply.Letter from Dennis Roberts, dated February 2010:"The Director General for the Office for National Statistics has been asked to reply to your Parliamentary Question asking how many economically inactive people of working age wanted employment in (a) each of the last ten years and (b) each of the last eight quarters. I am replying in his absence. (318949)""Estimates of economic inactivity are available from the Labour Force Survey (LFS). In accordance with the International Labour Organization (ILO) definition, people arc classed as economically inactive if they are neither in employment nor unemployed.""The estimates provided in the attached table are for economically inactive people of working age who wanted a job. They comprise those who have not been looking for work in the last four weeks, but who say they would like a regular paid job, plus those who have been looking for work but who were unable to start within two weeks. The estimates have been seasonally adjusted.""These estimates are published in Table 13 of the monthly Labour Market Statistical Bulletin.""As with any sample survey, estimates from the LFS are subject to a margin of uncertainty. Indications of the sampling variability of LFS aggregate estimates are provided in the Statistical Bulletin."

Economically inactive people of working age¹ who want a job², United Kingdom, seasonally adjusted
	Total (thousand)
October to December quarter:
2000	2,228
2001	2,260
2002	2,243
2003	2,123
2004	2,014
2005	2,062
2006	2,095
2007	2,096
Latest eight quarters:
2008
January to March	2,144
April to June	2,168
July to September	2,129
October to December	2,103
2009
January to March	2,082
April to June	2,144
July to September	2,251
October to December	2,326
¹ Men aged 16 to 64 and women aged 16 to 59. ² Those who had not been looking for work in the four weeks prior to interview but who said they would like a regular paid job, plus those who had been looking for work but had been unable to start within two weeks. Source: ONS Labour Force Survey.

Secondary information

Type

Written question

Reference

506 c995-6W; 318949

Session

2009-10

Related items

Unemployment
Tuesday, 16 March 2010
Written questions
House of Commons

Unemployment
Monday, 22 February 2010
Written questions
House of Commons

Subjects

Unemployment

Contains statistics

Yes

Link

View this Written question on www.publications.parliament.uk