Labour force survey, seasonally-adjusted figures, September 2001

Seasonally adjusted figures of registered unemployed the last couple of months can indicate a small increase in the unemployment. Meanwhile, the seasonally adjusted increase in registered unemployed plus persons on government measures to promote employment was only minor in the same period.

Adjusted for seasonal variations, the number of unemployed persons rose by 3 000 from the 3-months period (May - July) this year to (August - October). The number of unemployed persons in the 3-months period (August - October) this year constitutes 3.7 per cent of the labour force, compared with 3.6 per cent in the previous 3-months period. The 0.1 percentage points increase is within the error margins in the LFS caused by the sample uncertainty.

A total of 86 000 persons were unemployed and 2 285 000 persons were employed in the third quarter of 2001, according to figures from the Labour Force Survey (LFS) not seasonally adjusted.

The purpose of adjusting for seasonal variations is to describe the development during the last year and to give figures for change between the last two 3-months periods cleared for normal seasonal variations. In order to reduce uncertainty, the presented series are three months moving averages of the seasonally adjusted figures. For instance the figure from September is the average of the estimates from, August, September and October.

Tables:

• Table 1. Persons aged 16-74 years by labour force status, seasonally adjusted, three-months moving average. 1000