Talk:Unemployment in the United Kingdom

Underemployment and Zero Hours Contracts
In relation to the edit on the Underemployment section of this page where the following sentence has been added in:

"On 30 April 2014 the Office for National Statistics issued a new estimate of the number of workers contracted under Zero-hour contracts which shows that underemployment in the UK may have been underestimated by nearly one million people."

It is true that the new research from the ONS increased the official estimate of the number of people on zero hour contracts.

It can also be said that some people on zero hour contracts may be underemployed.

However estimates of the number of people on zero hour contracts are separate from the estimates of the number of people who are underemployed. Therefore it is not true to state that all people on zero hour contracts are underemployed because we cannot assume that all people on zero hour contracts want or are available to work more hours. In fact the new research showed that 65% of those people working on zero hours contracts stated that they did not want more hours of work.

Therefore I think this sentence should be removed or altered to say:

'Underemployment and Zero Hours Contracts

Some underemployed people may be on zero hour contracts but estimates of the number of people on these contracts are separate to estimates of the number of underemployed people. Some people on zero hour contracts do not want or are not available to work more hours therefore they cannot be considered to be underemployed.'

Statshan (talk) 11:13, 20 May 2014 (UTC)

Improvements to this page
I am user statshan and I work for the Office for National Statistics. I have been looking into improving this page on UK unemployment.

The main changes I would like to make are as follows:

1. To add in a section on "The Current Official Definition and Measurement of Unemployment in the UK" supported by links to the International Labour Organisation (ILO) and complete with a brief explanation of the differences between the unemployment figures and the claimant count figures.

2. To add a section in on "The Official UK Unemployment Rate" complete with a flow chart graphic showing how people are categorised into different labour market groups such as, employed, unemployed, economically inactive, economically active.

3. To add in a section on the "Publication of Official UK Unemployment Statistics" complete with links to the relevant pages on the ONS website that get updated monthly with the latest set of figures. This section would also be used to explain the difference between the official figures on unemployment which start from 1971 and the other data available on the unemployed which dates from as early as 1881.

4. To modify the section on "History" by adding in more detail on UK Unemployment Data from 1881 and explaining in more detail how the data from pre 1971 relates more closely to today's Claimant Count series. I also wish to add more detail on the history of unemployment from 1971 onwards together with a small paragraph about forward guidance and what effect may be felt from the unemployment rate falling below 7% in this month's figures.

5. Finally I would like to modify (without removing anything) the section on "hidden unemployment" to correct and add more detail into some of the definitions and to also add in links into relevant ONS publications.

If there are any issues with any of my proposed changes or if you would like any more detail on what I intend to do, I am happy to discuss.

Statshan (talk) 10:19, 23 April 2014 (UTC)

Graph?
Can somebody generate a simple graph of unemployment change over time?  Wik idea  14:02, 16 November 2011 (UTC)


 * The graph that is featured is terrible: the x-axis is illegible - it has been shifted at least 2 years to the right - also it is not clear exactly where any date falls. The "1977" inflation dip should be the day Thatcher became PM in 1979. Then between 1979 and 1981 inflation doubled from 10% to 20% due to monetarism. Fuficius Fango (talk) 11:41, 6 May 2021 (UTC)

UK employment
Do other editors think that content on the UK employment rate should be inserted in a section in this article or in an article of its own? I fear that an article on its own would be rather short (at least to begin with) Absolutelypuremilk (talk) 15:01, 11 November 2015 (UTC)

What is the definition of "employed"?
The article fails to define "employed". If someone on a zero hours contract could have 40, 20, 10 or no hours of work but still be considered "employed" because they don't qualify for JSA. The article implies this but doesn't say so explicitly. I'd do it but I don't know the exact details. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 88.97.11.54 (talk) 09:31, 3 September 2018 (UTC)