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Data Provider: Welsh Government Experimental Statistics Seasonally adjusted claimant count data by UK country/English region, variable and month (experimental statistics)
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[Collapse]LevelThe number of people claiming Jobseekers allowance (JSA).[Collapse]RateWorkplace-based rates which are calculated by expressing the number of claimants who are resident in each area as a percentage of workforce jobs plus the claimant count. Workforce jobs are the sum of: employee jobs; self-employment jobs; Her Majesty`s Forces and Governemtn supported trainees.
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[Collapse]United Kingdom1,229,8832,628,7991,667,3371,525,721(p) The data item is provisional.1,583,1633.16.74.23.9(p) The data item is provisional.4.0
United Kingdom[Collapse]England1,031,1072,255,1531,435,1471,316,602(p) The data item is provisional.1,379,1863.06.74.23.9(p) The data item is provisional.4.1
EnglandNorth East73,572117,00876,53768,289(p) The data item is provisional.63,9375.28.35.44.9(p) The data item is provisional.4.7
North West164,558316,263208,639194,450(p) The data item is provisional.194,9623.77.24.84.4(p) The data item is provisional.4.6
Yorkshire and the Humber115,051223,402149,720138,143(p) The data item is provisional.142,9853.67.24.94.5(p) The data item is provisional.4.6
East Midlands78,250162,495105,485100,220(p) The data item is provisional.104,4142.96.24.03.8(p) The data item is provisional.4.0
West Midlands141,506265,416187,491178,042(p) The data item is provisional.181,7584.17.75.45.2(p) The data item is provisional.5.4
East87,111206,221124,477111,412(p) The data item is provisional.120,3872.45.83.53.1(p) The data item is provisional.3.5
London183,059503,692309,542282,486(p) The data item is provisional.309,6622.77.44.64.2(p) The data item is provisional.4.5
South East115,204292,706175,414158,667(p) The data item is provisional.169,3252.15.53.33.0(p) The data item is provisional.3.2
South West72,796167,95097,84284,893(p) The data item is provisional.91,7562.25.33.12.7(p) The data item is provisional.2.8
[Expand]Wales58,130109,47570,26362,034(p) The data item is provisional.61,5083.56.54.23.7(p) The data item is provisional.3.7
[Expand]Scotland110,783207,504124,547110,942(p) The data item is provisional.105,7923.56.74.03.6(p) The data item is provisional.3.5
[Expand]Northern Ireland29,86356,66737,38036,143(p) The data item is provisional.36,6773.06.04.03.8(p) The data item is provisional.3.8

Metadata

Title

Seasonally adjusted claimant count monthly data by UK country/English Region (Experimental statistics)

Last update

18 April 2024 18 April 2024

Next update

16 May 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

UK regions

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

General description

The headline measure of the claimant count has been changed to include some claimants of Universal Credit (UC) as well as Jobseeker’s Allowance (JSA) claimants, resulting in upward revisions to the claimant count back to May 2013. Previously the headline measure did not include UC claimants.
The claimant count measures the number of people claiming unemployment related benefits. Between October 1996 and April 2013, the only unemployment related benefit in the UK was JSA and the claimant count was therefore a count of the number of people claiming JSA.
There have been revisions to the claimant count back to January 2012, resulting from the annual review of the seasonal adjustment process, and revisions to national and regional claimant count rates back to 2001, resulting from updating the denominators to take account of the latest estimates of Workforce Jobs. There have been further revisions to the claimant count back to May 2013 resulting from incorporating estimates of Universal Credit.


Data collection and calculation

The data are published monthly and are seasonally adjusted. Rates given in this dataset are workplace based estimates.

Frequency of publication

Monthly

Data reference periods

1999 to 2024

Rounding applied

Data are rounded to the nearest 100.

Revisions information

Data for the latest month are provisional and are revised on the release of the next months data.
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

Keywords

Seasonally adjusted 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.