WHAT IS THE BEST MEASURE OF EMPLOYMENT AND ... - TARA

Two labour force categories comprising laid—off persons are defined Group
10 comprises those persons on lay-off who indicate that they are either looking
for work or they are not looking as they have found a new job Persons in this
group are evidently unemployed
Group 11 comprises those persons on lay-off who indicate that they are not
looking for work either because they are awaiting recall from lay-off or
otherwise Such persons might fall to be considered under three paragraphs
of the ILO Resolution, namely
if the reason such persons are not looking for work is because the
conventional means of seeking work are of limited relevance due to
inadequate labour absorption then they might be classified as
unemployed according to paragraph 10(2)
under paragraph 10(5) countries may relax the job seeking criterion
in the case of persons temporarily laid-off although such persons
classified among the unemployed are to be identified as a separate
subcategory
finally under paragraph 12(2) countries adopting the standard
definition of unemployment are asked to identify persons not
classified as unemployed who were available for work but not seeking
work and to classify them as a separate subcategory under the
population not currently active
My personal view is that the jobsearch criterion in the International Standards
should be the determining factor and accordingly I propose to classify persons
in Group 11 among those not economically active but marginally attached to
the labour force Persons marginally attached to the labour force should not
be overlooked when considering the inadequacies of the labour market,
information will be readily available on such persons under the proposed
framework
Persons with a job but not at work
Such persons are coded 3 at Q17 I originally examined nine groups of
persons with a job who were not at work but since for every year certain of
these were always zero I subsequently collapsed them into the six considered
below The categories, defined according to various reply combinations to
subsequent questions, are listed in Table B
Persons in Group 12 are not at work but have a new job to start in the future
and according to paragraph 10(4) of the international standards should be
considered as unemployed This group is so small that it does not merit any
further disaggregation so I propose to include such persons as unemployed
and seeking full-time work
Persons for whom codes 2-9 are recorded at Q18 will be considered to be in
employment in accordance with paragraphs 9(a2), 9(b2) and 9(3) of the
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