Concepts

To understand labour market statistics, it is useful to know about the underlying concepts. These concepts fit into a structure of labour supply and demand known as the labour market framework.

'Supply' is represented by those people who supply (or potentially supply) their labour to employers (see for example, employment, economic activity or inactivity). 'Demand' is represented by the jobs offered by employers and job vacancies.

This section describes these labour market concepts and includes definitions and related concepts.

  • Employment

    Definitions of the different types of employment

  • Unemployment

    All concepts relating to unemployment, such as duration of unemployment and job search activities

  • Economic activity

    Explains the concept of economic activity based on the ILO definition

  • Economic inactivity

    Data available for economic inactivity

  • Employers

    The multiple roles of employers in the labour market

  • Labour costs and pay

    Defining the monetary relationship between employers and employees

  • Working-age benefits

    Jobseeker's Allowance, Incapacity Benefit and Severe Disablement Allowance, Income Support and Disability Living Allowance

  • Characteristics

    The characteristics of various sub-groups of both people and jobs within the labour market

  • Workless households

    What a workless household is and the workless household rate