Question
What is the difference between registered unemployed and unemployed?
Answer
Official statistics distinguishes between registrierte Arbeitslose (registered unemployed) as recorded by the Federal Employment Agency and Erwerbslose (unemployed) according to the International Labour Organization (ILO); the latter are collected monthly through the ILO labour market statistics of the Federal Statistical Office.
The common principle of both concepts is that a person is considered unemployed if he/she during a specific period has no job, is available for the labour market and is looking for a job. Differences between the two concepts emerge, however, when concretising the variables that are relevant for classifying a person as unemployed. For example, according to the ILO concept, any person contributing to the overall economic performance is considered as a person in employment, even if that contribution is just one hour of work per week.
Due to the definitional differences, the number of unemployed according to the ILO concept may include persons not considered unemployed by the Federal Employment Agency (e.g. unemployed persons who are not looking for a job through the employment agencies and, consequently, are not registered there). Also, there are persons who are considered as unemployed in the statistics of the Federal Employment Agency, but not according to the ILO concept (e.g. registered unemployed performing marginal part-time work, which is permitted according to the definition of registered unemployed of the German Social Security Code, SGB III).
For more detailed information on the labour force concept of the ILO labour market statistics of the Federal Statistical Office and on the differences between registered unemployed and unemployed please refer to our website at http://www.destatis.de/arbeitsmarkt.
