Measuring unemployment
Unemployment can be measured by the claimant count or the labour force survey. Discuss the relative reliability of these two measures.
Unemployed is the percentage of the workforce which is able, available and willing to work at the current wage rate but cannot find work despite seeking for a job.
Claimant count is a measure of unemployment which includes those unemployed people who are eligible to claim the Job Seeker's Allowance or who have enough National Insurance Credits. It is very reliable because the data is collected by the government; it shows exactly how much percentage of people actually claimed for the JSA. On the other hand, the measure can be very inaccurate for measuring the percentage of people actually unemployed. This is because not all unemployed people are eligible to claim the JSA. For example, a woman who is currently unemployed might be unable to get benefit from JSK because she has a husband who already receives certain amount of salary. This means that she is not counted in the claimant count data even though she’s unemployed. Some people might don’t know how to apply for JSA. These factors will cause the claimant count to be lower than the actual unemployment in the country. In contrast, people who have a job might want some free money and decide to cheat; this will result in an inaccurate data of the percentage of people actually unemployed.
The labour force survey is measured based on a survey, this means that those people who are unemployed but are not eligible to claim the JSA will also be included in the data. This could make the result more accurate as not every unemployed can easily claim JSK. It is carried out every three months as a survey asking people, whether they are employed or unemployed. The result is likely to be generalise because 60,000 households are surveyed each time. Alternatively, the result will not be reliable. This is because people may lie; they might answer the question in a socially desirable bias way to
Unemployed is the percentage of the workforce which is able, available and willing to work at the current wage rate but cannot find work despite seeking for a job.
Claimant count is a measure of unemployment which includes those unemployed people who are eligible to claim the Job Seeker's Allowance or who have enough National Insurance Credits. It is very reliable because the data is collected by the government; it shows exactly how much percentage of people actually claimed for the JSA. On the other hand, the measure can be very inaccurate for measuring the percentage of people actually unemployed. This is because not all unemployed people are eligible to claim the JSA. For example, a woman who is currently unemployed might be unable to get benefit from JSK because she has a husband who already receives certain amount of salary. This means that she is not counted in the claimant count data even though she’s unemployed. Some people might don’t know how to apply for JSA. These factors will cause the claimant count to be lower than the actual unemployment in the country. In contrast, people who have a job might want some free money and decide to cheat; this will result in an inaccurate data of the percentage of people actually unemployed.
The labour force survey is measured based on a survey, this means that those people who are unemployed but are not eligible to claim the JSA will also be included in the data. This could make the result more accurate as not every unemployed can easily claim JSK. It is carried out every three months as a survey asking people, whether they are employed or unemployed. The result is likely to be generalise because 60,000 households are surveyed each time. Alternatively, the result will not be reliable. This is because people may lie; they might answer the question in a socially desirable bias way to