A question about jobless figures.

[MincePieFlavouredVoidka]

Are they just made up of people who claim JSA?

The stats are gained through the 'Labour Force Survey' and refer to the number of people who are actively looking for work and available to start work, or who have found work and are waiting to start their job. They don't necessarily have to be claiming benefits like JSA. It does not include those who are out of the job market voluntarily, carers, retired or disabled people, young people in higher education or training etc.

well there is the claimant count which is simply a headcount of those on JSA and those available for work on income support as well

In practice though the measures used to determine whether someone is actively looking for work are similar to those demanded by those in charge of distributing benefits (i.e. you have to show that you have looked for work to keep getting JSA), so the numbers you see probably are really just a good measure of those on benefits rather than those who would work if they were offered a good job

From the ONS website which collates the official figures.

The number of unemployed people in the UK is measured by the Labour Force Survey (LFS) and includes people who meet the international definition of unemployment specified by the International Labour Organisation (ILO). This ILO definition defines unemployed people as being:
? without a job, have been actively seek work in the past 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