The claimant count measures the number of people claiming unemployment-related benefits.

They must declare that they are:

• out of work
• capable of work
• available for work
• and actively seeking work

during the week in which their claim is made.

Details are collected on the number of claimants for one particular day of the month (the stock) as well as the numbers joining and leaving the count each month (the flows).

In addition, an analysis of claimants by age and duration of claim is available every quarter.

Although the alternative ILO measure of unemployment (see below) is increasingly cited in official statistics, the claimant count is still closely watched by many analysts.

It is particularly valuable because figures are released a month earlier than ILO unemployment, while historic data (adjusted for significant changes in benefit rules) are available for a longer period of time.

The Labour Force Survey (LFS) is a sample survey of people living in private households. It covers approximately 60,000 households, ensuring that representative results can be produced for the whole of the UK.

Around the middle of each month, the ONS releases statistics on the number of people who are ILO unemployed in the UK for the latest three-month period.

The ILO unemployment rate is the proportion of the economically active who are unemployed.

Under LFS definitions, ILO unemployment includes those who:

• have not worked for 1 hour in the reference period
• are able to start work within 2 weeks, and
• have taken steps to find work within a certain time frame (normally 4 weeks).

ILO unemployment is now the official measure of unemployment in the UK. From January 2003, ‘ILO unemployment’ in the official statistical press release was re-labelled as ‘unemployment’.

National Statistics noted at the time that this was intended “to emphasise that this is the official UK measure of unemployment”. At the same time, the claimant count table was amended to remove the word ‘unemployment’.

Clearly, a certain overlap exists between the claimant count and ILO unemployment, and over time they tend to move in broadly the same direction. In any given month, however, it is not uncommon for one measure to rise while the other falls.

This arises from the fact that they measure different things.

The claimant count measures only those people who are claiming specific unemployment-related benefits (currently the Jobseeker’s Allowance), but many unemployed people are not eligible for these benefits.

In particular, individuals living with a partner who is working are often ineligible for the income-based Jobseeker’s Allowance.

Other groups not eligible are young people under 18 who are looking for work but who do not take up the offer of a youth training place, and students looking for vacation work.

Additionally, some people who may be eligible for unemployment benefits do not register as claimants. Although at first sight this may seem strange, there are grounds for thinking that the phenomenon is not uncommon.

Not only is there an element of stigma attached to claiming benefits, the process also involves a degree of inconvenience. This ‘hassle factor’ has increased in recent years as the authorities demand from claimants a greater commitment to (and evidence of) actively seeking work, thus increasing the likelihood that some unemployed people will refrain from claiming.

This is more likely to be the case for people who are reasonably well-off (especially if they have just received a substantial redundancy payment from a previous employment) and expect to find other work in the near future.

Conversely, differences between the two measures can also arise where claimants do not appear as ILO unemployed. Some claimants, for instance, may be (legitimately) employed for only a few hours and not earning enough to be disqualified from benefits; others may not be strictly seeking work, according to the ILO definition, at the time of the survey.

The number of people in this situation, however, is usually considerably smaller than the number of non-claimants who are ILO-unemployed.

The ILO measure therefore generally reports a higher level of unemployment than the claimant count.

The gap between the two measures is wider among women, for whom ILO unemployment is invariably greater than the claimant count.

This reflects the greater propensity of unemployed women to be ineligible for benefits compared to unemployed men.

It is thought that fewer than half of unemployed women claim unemployment benefits, compared with around three-quarters of unemployed men.

The gap, moreover, varies with the economic cycle.

At times of stronger growth and high employment the gap tends to widen, because people who were previously not seeking work are encouraged to do so.

By starting to look for work, they may well become classified as ILO unemployed, but unless they are eligible for unemployment benefits they will not feature in the claimant count.