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Dissemination Standards Bulletin Board Special Data Dissemination Standard (THE SUMMARY METHODOLOGY STATEMENT HAS BEEN PROVIDED BY EURO AREA, WHICH IS SOLELY RESPONSIBLE FOR ITS ACCURACY AND COMPLETENESS. AT THE TIME OF POSTING, THE STATEMENT WAS REVIEWED BY THE IMF FOR CONSISTENCY WITH THE METADATA BASE PAGE DESCRIBING DISSEMINATION PRACTICES. SUBSCRIBERS ARE REQUIRED TO PROVIDE UPDATES TO THE STATEMENT, AS NEEDED, AND ARE EXPECTED TO MAKE OTHER IMPROVEMENTS, AS WARRANTED, TO ENHANCE TRANSPARENCY) Euro Area Summary Methodology Labor market: Unemployment - Harmonised (Harmonised Unemployment - Labour Force Survey ) Last Posted: Nov-8-2006 Last Updated: Nov-8-2006 Contact Person(s)          Printer Friendly Page   Unit F2 Labour market statitics , European Statistical Data Support: http://epp.eurostat.cec.eu.int/pls/portal/url/page/PGP_DS_SUPPORT, Eurostat, Statistical Office of the European Communities, Luxembourg L-2920

I. Analytical Framework, Concepts, Definitions, and Classifications

2.1.1 Concepts and definitions Definition of indicators Unemployed persons are all persons 15 to 74 years of age who were not employed during the reference week, had actively sought work during the past four weeks and were ready to begin working immediately or within two weeks. Figures show the actual number of persons unemployed in thousands. Unemployment rate is the share of unemployed persons in the total number of active persons in the labour market. Active persons are those who are either employed or unemployed. Unemployment expressed in a rate of the total active population. The long-term unemployment rate (Structural indicator) is the share of unemployed persons since 12 months or more in the total number of active persons in the labour market. Active persons comprise both the people who are employed and those who are unemployed. For more detail see Labour market: Employment and Unemployment and Long-term unemployment rate. 2.3.1 Classification/sectorization Classification system and conformity with official standards The definition of unemployment conforms to the recommendations of the International Labour Organisation (ILO).

II. Scope of the data

2.2.1 Scope Scope of the data Geographical coverage European aggregates are available for EU-15 (Belgium, Denmark, Germany, Greece, Spain, France, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Austria, Portugal, Finland, Sweden and the United Kingdom) and EU-25 (Belgium, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Germany, Estonia, Greece, Spain, France, Ireland, Italy, Cyprus, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Hungary, Malta, the Netherlands, Austria, Poland, Portugal, Slovenia, Slovakia, Finland, Sweden and the United Kingdom). Statistical units Not applicable Statistical population The reference population is individual persons living in private households. More details can be found in the European Union Labour Force Survey.

III. Accounting Conventions

2.4.2 Recording basis Reference period Data on unemployed persons and unemployment rates refer to monthly (Euro-Indicator), quarterly and annual averages (Structural Indicator). Base period None Recording of transactions None

IV. Nature of the Basic Data Sources

3.1.1 Source data collection programs Data sources used The data is first calculated on a monthly level. There is no legal basis regulating the production and dissemination of the monthly unemployment data. However, there are legislative acts of the European Council and Parliament and of the European Commission that govern the European Union Labour Force Survey.  (EU-LFS), and result in he production of the quarterly data on labour force. Eurostat is complementing this quarterly data with the monthly indicator of the national unemployment delivered from the Member States thanks to a gentlemen's agreement. The results of these complementary calculations yield the harmonised monthly unemployment data (Euro-Indicator). Quarterly and annual averages (Structural Indicator) are calculated from these harmonised time series. Type of survey The European Union Labour Force Survey is a household survey carried out in all EU?? countries on the basis of agreed definitions. Techniques of data collection See data sources used

V. Compilation Practices

3.3.2 Other statistical procedures Compilation of European aggregates First, the individual national monthly data is compiled. Used source data are the EU-LFS and the national LFS or national registered unemployment data. In most Member States the EU-LFS data provides quarterly data but some Member States also extract monthly data or monthly moving averages data form the national LFS. The goal is to produce comparable monthly time series of unemployment rates using the most recent EU-LFS data with the highest possible frequency. For the following Member States, the quarterly EU-LFS is used together with monthly registered unemployment data: - Belgium - Czech Republic - Denmark - Estonia - Spain - France (EU-LFS is not used as such but as moving pooled yearly averages) - Ireland - Cyprus (EU-LFS is not used as such but as moving pooled yearly averages) - Latvia - Lithuania - Luxembourg (EU-LFS is not used as such but as fixed annual averages) - Malta - Hungary - Austria (EU-LFS is not used as such but as fixed annual averages) - Poland - Portugal - Slovenia - Slovakia For the following Member States, the quarterly EU-LFS is used together with the monthly national LFS data: - the Netherlands (monthly moving averages data form the national LFS) - Finland - Sweden - the United Kingdom (monthly moving averages data form the national LFS) For the following Member States, the quarterly EU-LFS is used alone with the lack of any monthly data on unemployment: - Greece - Italy For the time being the data used for Germany is coming directly from the national monthly survey (separate from the EU-LFS) which measures unemployed/employed/inactive persons following the ILO concepts. The monthly estimate of the number of unemployed persons is produced by using the monthly data to interpolate / extrapolate the quarterly EU-LFS data. Therefore the harmonised unemployment data get the level (number of unemployed and the unemployment rates) from the EU-LFS data and on the short-term basis and with the most recent movements, the harmonised data reflect movements in the registered unemployment or the national LFS data. Monthly estimates of the number of people employed are also derived by interpolating / extrapolating data from the EU-LFS. As distinct from unemployment, there are no administrative registers to use for estimating monthly employment. Where possible, data from the national LFS are used. Data on employment are not published, but used only to calculate unemployment rates. Monthly unemployment and employment series are calculated first at the level of four categories for each Member State (males and females under 25 years, males and females 25 years and over). These series are then seasonally adjusted and all the national and European aggregates are calculated (i.e. indirect adjustment). Since all the data are expressed in absolute values each month, number of people, no weighting is needed – aggregate figures are calculated by adding up all the national data series. Missing national data are estimated using the most recent trends of the series. Due to the relative shortness of the time series offered by the survey for Germany, it is not possible to fully extract the seasonal component. Hence, European aggregates are compiled using smoothed German seasonally adjusted data. This method is applied for the data from 2003 onwards. Adjustments Basic data are expressed in number of persons and presented as: - Non seasonally adjusted (NSA) data - Seasonally adjusted (SA) data - Trend data 3.4.1 Validation of intermediate results Data validation of statistical data Quarterly and monthly figures received from all EU countries are processed and validated before updating Eurostat’s reference database.

VI. Other Aspects

Footnotes

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