(2) whether those participating in the (a) Work Trial, (b) Workstep, (c) Work Preparation, (d) Work Path, (e) Employment Zones and (f) Progress2Work programme are classified as unemployed for the purposes of unemployment statistics.
The information requested falls within the responsibility of the UK Statistics Authority. I have asked the authority to reply.
Letter from Karen Dunnell, dated April 2009:
As National Statistician, I have been asked to reply to your Parliamentary Questions asking:
what account the figures on unemployment produced by the Office for National Statistics take of individuals participating in New Deal schemes operated by the Department for Work and Pensions. (268722).
whether those participating in the (a) Work Trial, (b) Workstep, (c) Work Preparation, (d) Work Path, (e) Employment Zones and (f) Progress2Work programme are classified as unemployed for purposes of unemployment statistics. (268685).
Estimates of unemployment published in the monthly Labour Market Statistics First Release are derived from the Labour Force Survey (LFS).
The definition of unemployment follows that recommended by the International Labour Organisation (ILO)—an agency of the United Nations. In the LFS, people are classified as unemployed if:
(a) they consider themselves to be without a job, want a job, and report that they have actively sought work in the last four weeks and are available to start work in the next two weeks; or
(b) they report that they are out of work, have found a job and are waiting to start it in the next two weeks.
This ILO internationally-standard definition is applied in the LFS so that people are defined as unemployed purely on the basis of their behaviour in the labour market. Therefore the definition of unemployment is independent of someone's participation on any training scheme. Consequently, people on such schemes who satisfy the above criteria will be classified as unemployed and others will not.