Labour Market Statistics for 16 to 24 year olds: Scotland and the United Kingdom - October 2023 to September 2024

Glossary

Rates: Rates represent the proportion of the population or subgroup with a certain characteristic. They allow changes in the labour market to be interpreted in a wider context by accounting for changes in the population or the number of people who are economically active. Rates can be calculated for different age groups.

Within this publication, the reference population for employment and economic inactivity rates is the overall 16 to 24 year old population. For unemployment, the reference population is the active population aged 16 to 24.

Economically active: The population who are either in employment or unemployed.

Economically inactive: People not in employment and who do not meet the criteria for unemployment. This group includes:

• those who want a job but who have not been seeking work in the last four weeks
• those who want a job and are seeking work but not available to start
• those who do not want a job

For example, students not working or seeking work and those in retirement.

Employment: There are two main ways of looking at employment: the number of people with jobs or the number of jobs. These two concepts represent different things as one person can have more than one job. The number of people in employment is measured via the Labour Force Survey and consist of those aged 16 and over. Employment measures the number of people who did at least one hour of paid work or had a job they were temporarily away from. People who do unpaid work in a family business and people on Government-supported training and employment programs are also included. This is in accordance with the International Labour Organisation (ILO) definition.

Unemployment: The ILO definition of unemployment covers people who are 16 years and over:

• without a job, have been actively seeking work in the past four weeks and are available to start work in the next fortnight

or

• out of work, have accepted a job and are waiting to start it in the next two weeks

Employment rate: The proportion of people aged between 16 and 24 years who are in employment.

Unemployment rate: The proportion of economically active people aged 16 to 24 years who are unemployed.

Economic inactivity rate: The proportion of people aged between 16 and 24 years who are economically inactive.

Sex: Sex is self-reported by respondents participating in the ONS Annual Population Survey (APS). Analysis is based on “sex” rather than “gender”. No documentation is asked for by the interviewer or provided by the respondent.