- Unemployed
- An unemployed person is someone without a job who is currently available to work and has actively looked for work in the previous four weeks.
- Economically inactive
- An economically inactive person is out of paid work and either has not looked for a job in the past four weeks or cannot start within two weeks.
Kinds of hidden unemployment
Can you name two kinds of hidden unemployment?
People who lack the work they want but are not counted as unemployed.
A discouraged worker is someone who wants a job and could take one, but has stopped looking because they expect to find none.
Can you think of an example?
A woman in Middlesbrough wants work but has given up applying, because every local vacancy asks for experience she lacks. Having not looked in the past four weeks, she counts as economically inactive, not unemployed.
Underemployment is working fewer hours than you want, or in a job below your skills, while being counted as employed.
Can you think of an example?
A graduate engineer stacks shelves part-time while hoping for full-time engineering work. The survey counts her as employed, so the headline rate shows none of the work she wants and cannot get.