Unused labour force and additional data on ILO-unemployment Analysis of the Austrian LFS

1. Unused labour force and additional data on ILO-unemployment Analysis of the Austrian LFS Workshop LFS methodology, Ljubljana 2009 Melitta Fasching

2. Background • Reasons for presenting additonal data on unused labour force and unemployment are • to provide a wide spectrum of data for labour market analysis • to explain differences between the figures of the national public unemployment office and the LFS • to use all information on unemployment and underemployment provided by the LFS variables

3. Two topics • The following topics are considered • A) Immediately available groups of unused labour force, underutilization-rates • B) Concepts of unemployment in the LFS, number of persons affected by unemployment in the broadest sense

4. A) Groups of unused labour force • Unemployed(ILO-definition) Not employed persons (ILO), -who actively search a job and -who are available within 2 weeks or -who start a new job within 3 months • Unemployment-rate (ILO-definition) Unemployed (ILO) as a percentage of the economically active population (unemployed + employed)

5. A) Groups of unused labour force • Labour market reserve Economically inactive persons (ILO-definition), aged 15 to 64, not searching a job but willing to work and available to start working within two weeks. • Labour market reserve-rate Persons in the labour market reserve (numerator) related to the total number of the economically inactive population aged 15 to 64 (denominator)

6. Labour market reserve

7. A) Groups of unused labour force • Discouraged workers Economically not active persons (ILO-definition), not searching a job, because they believe that no work is available Discouraged workers who are wishing to work and available for starting to work within two weeks are counted as labour market reserve

8. A) Groups of unused labour force • Time-related underemployed Employed persons (ILO), -who usually work <40h per week and -who want to work more hours and -who are available to start working more hours within two weeks • Timerelated-underemployment-rate The number of time-related underemployed persons (numerator) related to all employed persons (denominator)

9. Time-related underemployment

10. Graph: unemployed, labour market reserve and time-related underemployed

11. A) Underutilization-rates Only groups with immediate availability are used • U1 = unemployment rate according to ILO-definition • U2 = U1 + labour market reserve in the numerator and denominator • U3 = U2 + time-related underemployed in the numerator (they are already included in the employment figure of the denominator)

12. Labour force capacity and underutilization-rates compared over time

13. B) Concepts of unemployment in the LFS, unemployed in the broadest sense • A lot of variables concerning unemployment (unemployed: ILO, main status, registered at public employment office, persons awaiting a recall to work, discouraged workers) • Overlapping groups • Calculate exclusive groups according to the degree of the LM-attachment starting with the unemployed-ILO • Add the exclusive groups to the number of unemployed in the broadest sense

14. Concepts of unemployment in the LFS

15. Persons affected by unemployment in the broadest sense

16. Conclusions and questions Needs • Precise definitions • Standardization • Developing of additional indicators • Publishing these indicators on a regular basis Questions • Should an immediate availability be a component for labour market reserve? • What is an adequate threshold for hours usually worked per week to define timerelated underemployed? • What are the characteristics of labour market attachment? • Perhaps it could be useful to observe also the variable “slack work for technical or economic reasons” for no or less work?

17. Thank you for your attention! Melitta Fasching Statistics Austria Email: melitta.fasching@statistik.gv.at