Create a 7 pages page paper that discusses addressing unemployment in the united kingdom. The ILO concept of unemployed people requires that a person has been looking for work in the last 4 weeks and is able to start work in the next two weeks (UK ONS 2009, 16). Thus, the ILO definition of unemployment would exclude those in the unemployed who were not looking for work in the last 4 weeks and who are not immediately ready to work in the next 2 weeks.

Nevertheless, the UK adopted in 1984 the International Labour Organisation definition of unemployment based on labor force surveys (UK ONS 2009, p. 7). The survey interviews a sample and not by interviewing everybody. Inferences Based on a sample using a confidence interval. One issue with regard to unemployment measures based on surveys is that the estimate is actually a range of values (UK ONS 2009, p. 7). For November 2008 to January 2009, for example, the unemployment level based on the survey at the 95% confidence level is between 1,958,000 to 2,100,000 (UK ONS 2009, p. 7). Another issue that can emerge pertains to sampling variability and this matter, according to the UK ONS viewpoint (2009, p. 8) can affect estimates. Especially when sample size is small, the estimate may fail to find out whether unemployment really increased or decreased (UK ONS 2009, p. 8).

Another alternative to the unemployment rate in measuring unemployment is the claimant count. Established since 1996, the claimant count is the number of people claiming jobseeker’s allowance or JSA (UK ONS 2009, p. 9). To qualify under the program, applicants must be out “of work, capable of, available for, and actively seeking work during the week in which their claim is made” (UK ONS 2009, p. 9). Those qualified under their national insurance contribution are eligible to receive an allowance for a maximum of six months. The presence of the JSA can distort the percentage of the UK population who would be looking for work. At the same time, it can e argued that the JSA applicant or beneficiary count can be a good substitute measure for measuring unemployment.