OECD snapshot of scale of the Union’s problem

Date: 15/04/1999

By Tim Jones

The standardised unemployment rates published by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) are considered more reliable for comparing different countries' performances than straightforward national data.

These latest figures, released last week, give the numbers of unemployed people as a percentage of the total labour force.

The OECD follows the statistical guidelines set out by the International Labour Office, which define the total workforce as civilian employees, the self-employed, unpaid family workers, professional and conscripted members of the armed forces and the unemployed.

The EU's statistical agency Eurostat, whose figures the OECD uses for all EU countries except Greece, calculates the number of jobless on a slightly different basis, by surveying private households. This excludes working people who live in institutions, such as soldiers in barracks.