General description

This experimental series counts the number of people claiming Jobseeker's Allowance plus those who claim Universal Credit who are out of work and replaces the number of people claiming Jobseeker's Allowance as the headline indicator of the number of people claiming benefits principally for the reason of being unemployed.

Data collection and calculation

The data are published monthly and are NOT seasonally adjusted. The headline measure for the claimant count rate is based on the number of claimants who are resident in area as a percentage of workforce jobs plus the claimant count. The rate given in this dataset is expressed as a percentage of resident population aged 16-64 estimates, in order to provide information for Welsh local areas.

Frequency of publication

Monthly

Data reference periods

1999 to 2024

Revisions information

In November 2016 there were revisions to the Claimant Count back to December 2014 due to improved estimates of Universal Credit claimants from the Department for Work and Pensions

Title

Claimant count monthly data by Welsh local authority residence based rate (not seasonally adjusted) - EXPERIMENTAL STATISTICS

Last update

23 July 2024 23 July 2024

Next update

15 August 2024

Publishing organisation

Welsh Government

Source 1

Jobcentre Plus Administrative System, Department for Work and Pensions

Contact email

LabourMarket.Stats@gov.wales

Designation

Experimental statistics

Lowest level of geographical disaggregation

Local authorities

Geographical coverage

Wales

Languages covered

English and Welsh

Data licensing

You may use and re-use this data free of charge in any format or medium, under the terms of the Open Government License - see http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence

Weblinks

www.nomisweb.co.uk;
https://gov.wales/economic-and-labour-market-statistics-guide-data-sources-and-useful-links-0

Keywords

Claimant count; Unemployment

Statistical quality

There are two standard measures of unemployment used in official UK statistics the UK, namely the experimental claimant count and the International Labour Organisation (ILO) unemployment measure. The measures are different and are each subject to advantages and disadvantages.
The former is a count of all persons claiming jobseeker’s allowance and out of work universal credit claimants. As such it is not subject to sampling variability and can therefore be disaggregated to very high levels of detail. However, it excludes those who are unemployed who are not eligible to claim (for example those out of work but whose partner works), and those who do not wish to claim.
The ILO measure, which is a count of those who are out of work and want a job, have actively sought work in the last 4 weeks and are available to start work in the next two weeks; plus those who are out of work, have found a job and are waiting to start in the next 2 weeks, is a more encompassing measure of unemployment. However, as the data come from a survey, the results are sample-based estimates and therefore subject to differing degrees of sampling variability, i.e. the true value for any measure lies in a differing range about the estimated value. This range or sampling variability increases as the detail in the data increases, for example local authority data are subject to higher variability than Wales data.
Please see the weblink to the data sources guide for further information.

Name

Econ0084