Labour force survey, seasonally-adjusted figures, November 2001

In the fourth quarter last year 20 000 more persons than in the previous quarter were in the labour force (employed + unemployed).

Seasonally adjusted figures indicate an increase in employment of 15 000 persons from the third to the fourth quarter 2001, while the number of unemployed persons did not show any considerable change.

The number of unemployed persons in the fourth quarter 2001 constitutes 3.8 per cent of the labour force, compared with 3.6 per cent in the previous quarter. The 0.2 percentage points increase is within the error margins for the figures of change in the LFS caused by sample uncertainty. Seasonally adjusted figures of registered unemployed at the Employment Offices the last six months indicate an increase in unemployment.

A total of 2 275 000 persons were employed and 78 000 persons were unemployed in the fourth quarter of 2001 according to figures from the LFS not seasonally adjusted.

The number of man-weeks worked increased by 11 000 from third quarter to fourth quarter 2001. The increase is probably within the error margins for the figures of change in the LFS caused by sample uncertainty.

From the first quarter 1996 the LFS-data were collected weekly, compared to earlier when only one ordinary week pr. month was selected. For the time being the break in the series is handled by making monthly estimates where weeks with especially high absence rates are kept out of the estimation. Due to the Christmas holidays the interviews from the last week in December 2001 were kept out of the estimation of man-weeks worked. In 2000 the interviews from the last week of the year were kept out of the estimation for all the variables in December.

After seasonal adjustment, the levels are corrected to make the annual averages of the seasonally adjusted figures equal to the corresponding unadjusted figures from the LFS. In this release new factors of level correction are used, because the annual averages for 2001 of unadjusted LFS are first ready by this release. Due to preliminary factors of level correction in earlier releases in 2001, these seasonally adjusted figures of 2001 may deviate from the figures in this release.

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 November is the average of the estimates from October, November and December.

Tables:

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