The information requested falls within the responsibility of the UK Statistics Authority. I have asked the authority to reply.
Letter from Stephen Penneck, dated March 2010:
As Director General for the Office for National Statistics, I have been asked to reply to your Parliamentary Question asking how many people were not in employment in each quarter since April 2008. (320175 )
The table provided contains estimates of the number of people not in employment. These estimates have been derived from the figures published by the ONS in the monthly Labour Market Statistical Bulletin.
As with any sample survey, the estimates provided are subject to a margin of uncertainty. Indications of the sampling variability of LFS aggregate estimates are provided in the Statistical Bulletin.
Thousand April to June 2008 19,504 July to September 2008 19,722 October to December 2008 19,895 January to March 2009 20,153 April to June 2009 20,493 July to September 2009 20,599 October to December 2009 20,708 1 Unemployed people plus those who were economically inactive Source: ONS Labour Force Survey