Archive:Labour market slack - unmet need for employment - quarterly statistics

Data extracted in October 2020

Planned article update: January 2021

Highlights

In the third quarter of 2020, the share of people aged 15-74 facing a potential need for employment amounted to 14.5 % of the extended labour force, 1.5 percentage point higher compared with Q4 2019 but 0.1p.p. less compared with Q2 2020

Between the second and the third quarter of 2020, the decrease in the share of people available but not seeking (-0.9p.p.) is almost offset by the increase of unemployed people (+0.7p.p.)

In the third quarter of 2020, in ten EU Member States, unemployment accounted for less than the half of the unmet demand for employment.

The health crisis due to the COVID-19 has become in the European Union, like in other parts of the world, an economic crisis. As expected, the outcomes of the economic storm have started impacting the EU-27 labour market significantly in the course of the second quarter 2020. More specifically, given the lock-down measures and the economic slowdown, some people may have lost their employment, have lost the opportunity to start a new job or to be renewed, or were obliged to work less hours than expected.

In addition, people who were previously considered as unemployed by fulfilling the ILO requirements of being available for work and searching for it, might have given up their search for a certain period of time due to the poor economic prospects or the shut-down of the enterprises' activity, which consequently moves them outside the labour force, in particular during the second quarter of 2020. The third quarter of 2020 is characterised by the end of the lockdown in many countries and then, the restart of the economic activity although by applying sometimes restrictive conditions. It is therefore assumed that beyond unemployment, more people either inside or outside the labour force may have and might have had an unmet need for employment. This whole potential demand for employment (the unemployed and the supplementary categories) constitutes the labour market slack. More precisely, the groups constituting the labour market slack and then the unmet demand of employment are the unemployed people (according to the ILO definition), the underemployed part-time workers (those part-time workers who wish to work more) and, people who might be associated to the labour force but who are not recorded as such because they do not fulfill one of the three ILO requirements of availability to work, work search and being not employed. This last group of people is called the potential additional labour force. This article is based on quarterly and seasonally adjusted LFS data and investigates the impact of the COVID-19 crisis on the whole labour market slack; it also provides an overview of its specific components. Both the European and the country approach are presented in this article, which shows the effect of the COVID-19 crisis at the global EU level and at the national level in the respective Member States as well as in the United Kingdom, three EFTA countries (Iceland, Norway and Switzerland) and three candidate countries (North Macedonia, Serbia and Turkey).

This article is part of the online publication Labour market in the light of the COVID 19 pandemic - quarterly statistics alongside namely with the articles Employment, Absences from work and Hours of work.

_{Note: This article uses the seasonal adjusted data from the third quarter of 2020, i.e. July-September 2020, which is compared in some sections to the last quarter of 2019.}

Full article

Labour market slack in the EU-27

The labour market slack refers to the total sum of all unmet demands for employment and includes four groups: (1) the unemployed people according to the ILO definition, (2) the underemployed part-time workers (i.e. part-time workers who wish to work more), (3) people who are available to work but not searching for it and, (4) people who are searching for work but are not available for it. While the first two groups are in the labour force, the last two, also referred to as the potential additional labour force, are both outside the labour force. For this reason, the “extended labour force”, composed of both the labour force and the potential additional labour force, is used in this analysis.

The labour market slack is expressed as percentage of this extended labour force, and the relative size of each component (each of the four groups) of the labour market slack can be compared by using the extended labour force as denominator.

At EU level, people aged between 15 and 74 years old with an unmet need for employment accounted, during the third quarter of 2020, for 14.5 % of the extended labour force as shown in Figure 1. The slack was more pronounced for women, who stood at 16.8 % of the extended labour force, than for men (12.4 %).

Figure 1: Labour market slack by sex and country, Q3 2020
(people aged 15-74, in % of the extended labour force)
Source: Eurostat (lfsi_sla_q)

Figure 2: Change in the labour market slack as % of the extended labour force by sex and country
(people aged 15-74, Q3 2020 compared to Q4 2019, in percentage points)
Source: Eurostat (lfsi_sla_q)

Highest shares of people with unmet demand for employment in Spain, Greece and Italy, where it exceeds 20 % of the extended labour force

Among EU Member States, Spain (25.9 %), Greece (23.7 %) and Italy (22.4 %) recorded the highest slacks, reaching more than one fifth of the extended labour force (see Figure 2). Those countries also recorded the biggest gender gaps observed in the slack: 29.9 % for women against 18.7 % for men in Greece, 31.1 % against 21.2 % in Italy and 27.9 % against 18.0 % in Italy. The labour market slack of women exceeded the men's slack in all EU Member States except in Latvia, Bulgaria, Romania and Lithuania (in these four countries the gender gap in the slack is less than 2 percentage points (p.p.)). The lowest labour market slacks in the EU-27 were observed in Malta, Poland and Czechia with less than 8 % of the extended labour force facing an unmet demand for employment (the slack corresponds to 7.5 %, 6.2 % and 3.7 % of the extended labour force respectively).

Evolution over time of the labour market slack

Increase in the labour market slack in all EU Member States, except in Greece with the biggest increases in Estonia, Lithuania, Spain and Sweden

The development of the labour market slack from the last quarter of 2019 to the third quarter of 2020 shows some consequences of the COVID-19 crisis on the labour market. The labour market slack in the European Union increased by 1.5 p.p. between the last quarter of 2019 and the third quarter of 2020, from 13.0 % to 14.5 %. Since the first quarter of 2013, the slack increased for the first time between 2019Q4 and 2020Q1, by +0.4 p.p.; it registered a consecutive increase between 2020Q1 and 2020Q2 of +1.2 p.p and slightly decreased between 2020Q2 and 2020Q3 (-0.1 p.p.) (see the dynamic tool at the top of the article).

The labour market slack also increased between the last quarter of 2019 and the second quarter of 2020 in all EU countries, except Greece where it dropped by 0.2 p.p. Estonia, Lithuania, Spain and Sweden recorded the largest increases among Member States (see Figure 2). In Estonia, the labour market slack rose from 9.1 % to 13.7 % of the extended labour force (+4.6 p.p.), in Lithuania from 8.4 % to 12.1 % (+3.7 p.p), in Spain from 22.6 % to 25.9 % (+3.3 p.p) and in Sweden from 14.1 % to 17.1 % (+3.0 p.p). Over the same period, only Poland reported an increase lower than 0.5 p.p. in the share of people addressing a potential demand of employment with 0.1 p.p.

Biggest gender differences in the evolution of the slack in Lithuania, Luxembourg, Romania, Belgium and Denmark

At EU level, women registered between the last quarter of 2019 and the third quarter of 2020 a slightly sharper increase of the slack than men (+1.6 p.p. for women and +1.4 p.p. for men) (see Figure 2). The biggest gender-based difference in the Member States was observed in Lithuania: the labour market slack went up from 7.6 % to 11.9 % (+4.3 p.p.) for women and increased from 9.3 % to 12.4 % for men (+3.1 p.p.), which consists of an increase of the gender gap of 1.2 p.p. The same findings in a lesser extent can be found in Luxembourg, Romania, Belgium and Denmark where the gender gaps increased by 1 p.p. or more between both quarters. In 17 EU Member States, the slack rose more for women than for men while in 10 EU Member States, the evolution of the slack was more substantial for men than for women.

Labour market slack higher among young people

Based on the latest data, the population aged 15-24 registered higher labour market slack in the EU i.e. 31.3 % as well as in all EU Member States than the population aged 25-54 and 55-74 (respectively, 13.2 % and 11.6 % in the EU) (see Figure 3). Moreover, the highest shares of labour market slack among young people in the third quarter of 2020 were observed in Spain (57.6 %), Italy (51.0 %), Sweden (48.9 %) and Greece (48.2 %), where around half of the young people of the extended labour force was recorded in the slack. In contrast, the slack concerned less than 20 % of the young people in the extended labour force in Hungary (19.6 %), Malta (18.7 %), Poland (17.3 %), Germany (17.1 %) and Czechia (11.0 %). The two age categories 25-54 and 55-74 correspond to similar shares of slack in the extended labour force and show smaller differences across countries.

Figure 3: Labour market slack by age group and country, Q3 2020
(in % of the extended labour force)
Source: Eurostat (lfsi_sla_q)

The development over time of the slack for young people is generally more pronounced than for older people (see Figure 4). Regarding the health crisis, it is clearly noticeable that the unmet demand for employment of young people increased more substantially in the first and second quarter of 2020 (+1.7 p.p. and +3.2 p.p.) than for people aged 25-54 (+0.3 p.p. and +1.2 p.p.) and people aged 55-74 (+0.4 p.p. and +0.5 p.p.). In the same way, the labour market slack of young people decreased also more prominently although in a lesser extent between the second and the third quarter 2020 (-0.6 p.p.) than for people aged 25-54 (-0.1 p.p.) and people aged 55-74 for which the slack remained stable).

Figure 4: Labour market slack by age group, EU-27, Q1 2008 - Q3 2020
(in % of the extended labour force)
Source: Eurostat (lfsi_sla_q)

Composition of the labour market slack

Between Q2 2020 and Q3 2020, the relative stability of the slack hides an unemployment growth offset by fewer persons available to work but not seeking

In the third quarter of 2020, in the EU-27, the slack accounted for 14.5 % of the extended labour force. A bit less than half of the unmet demand for employment consisted of unemployed people which stood for 7.1 % of the extended labour force at the European level while persons available but not seeking stood for 3.6 %, underemployed part-time workers for 2.9 % and persons seeking work but not immediately available for 0.8 % (see Figure 5). Though, the development of each component of the labour market slack differs since the beginning of the health crisis due to the COVID-19. Indeed, the sharp increase recorded from the first to the second quarter of 2020 in the labour market slack (+1.2 p.p.) was mainly due to the increase in people available to work but not seeking (+1.1 p.p.) rather than the increase in unemployment (+0.2 p.p.) or in the number of the underemployed part-time workers (+0.1p.p.) while the persons seeking but not available decreased by 0.2p.p. on the same period. This might be due to the shutdown of many businesses and schools, which made some people very likely reconsidering their job search. With the restart of the activity, even partial, that took place at the third quarter, the labour market slack slightly decreased by 0.1p.p. However, the major changes concern the strong increase of unemployment (+0.7p.p.) and the drop in the share of people available to work but not seeking (-0.9p.p.) while the other components (like the underemployed part-time workers and people seeking work but not immediately available) were stable between both quarters.

Figure 5: Components of the labour market slack, EU-27, Q1 2008-Q3 2020
(people aged 15-74, in % of the extended labour force)
Source: Eurostat (lfsi_sla_q)

In the second quarter of 2020, the structure of the labour market slack was considerably different across countries (see Figure 6). In Germany, Ireland and the Netherlands, unemployment stood at less than 40% of the total national slack, while the underemployed part-time workers and people in the additional labour force accounted together for more than 60 % of the slack. In contrast, unemployment accounted for more than 70% of the total labour market slack in Lithuania, Czechia and Slovakia.

Figure 6: Components of the labour market slack by country, Q3 2020
(people aged 15-74, in % of the labour market slack)
Source: Eurostat (lfsi_sla_q)

Specific consequences of the COVID-19 crisis on the labour market categories

This section is dedicated to show the global picture of the whole population as regards the labour market. As aforementioned in this article, the economic winding down due to the COVID-19 has impacted the labour status of people unexpectedly compared to normal times. At European level, from the last quarter 2019 to the second quarter 2020, the economic slowdown led as already identified to a decrease in the employment: the share of employed people aged 15-74 (excluding underemployed part-time workers) decreased by -1.5 p.p. This decrease was mainly accompanied with an increase in people available to work but not seeking (+1 p.p.) and an increase in people outside the extended labour force, those who were neither employed, available nor seeking (+0.4 p.p.) while unemployment rose slightly by 0.1 p.p. (see Figure 7). From the second to the third quarter, employment rate of people aged 15-74 increased by 0.3 p.p. However, at the same time, unemployment also increased by 0.4 p.p. while the number of people available to work but not seeking dropped by 0.6 p.p. The other categories changing more marginally. The situation at national level (see Figure 8 and Figure 9) shows different patterns according to the countries.

Figure 8 provides for each country an overview of the population broken down by labour market categories in the third quarter of 2020. In addition, Figure 9 reports on the evolution of the share of each category between Q4 2019 and Q3 2020. This last figure shows that the share of employed people (excluding underemployed part-time workers) decreased in all EU countries, except Greece, between Q4 2019 and Q3 2020, while the other categories fluctuated quite differently across countries being more or less closer to the EU pattern.

Figure 7: People by labour force status and sex, EU-27, Q4 2019 - Q3 2020
(aged 15-74, in % of the total population)
Source: Eurostat (lfsi_sla_q)

It is clearly visible that in some EU Member States, the decrease in the share of employed people goes hand in hand with a raise in the unemployment category as it is observed in Hungary, Croatia, Lithuania, Denmark, Cyprus, Slovakia, Estonia, Finland or Sweden. In Malta, Latvia, Belgium and Luxembourg, the increase recorded in unemployment seems also to compensate the reported decrease in the number of people outside the extended labour force and/or the cut in persons available to work but not seeking or, in Malta, the decline in the number of underemployed part-time workers. In the remaining countries, the other components of the slack became visibly more prominent. This is the case of the category of persons available to work but not seeking which rose by more than 0.5p.p. in Spain, Germany, Portugal, Ireland, Romania or Austria. Another pattern was moreover observed in Bulgaria, Slovenia, Italy, Poland, Czechia, Croatia and France (also France Metropolitan) where the number of people neither employed, available to work nor seeking increased noticeably with respect to the decrease of employed people between the last quarter 2019 and the third quarter 2020. _{Note: Underemployed part-time workers and persons seeking work but not available are also included in Figure 9 but not commented due to their lower weights in the total population.}

Figure 8: People by labour status and country, Q3 2020
(aged 15-74, in % of the total population)
Source: Eurostat (lfsi_sla_q) and (une_rt_q)

Figure 9: Change in the share of people by labour status and country as % of the population
(people aged 15-74, Q3 2020 compared to Q4 2019, in percentage points)
Source: Eurostat (lfsi_sla_q) and (une_rt_q)

Focus on unemployment

Unemployment (ILO) is one component of the labour market slack. In the EU-27, it stood at 7.1 % of the extended labour force in the second quarter of 2020, specifically reaching 7.4 % for women and 6.9 % for men (see Figure 10).

In Greece and Spain, more than one in ten persons in the extended labour force was unemployed in the third quarter of 2020 (15.9 % and 15.2 % respectively). Moreover, Greece and Spain are part of the countries for which the biggest gap between men and women was found. Female unemployment in Greece accounted for 19.0 % and male unemployment for 13.4 % (difference of 5.6 p.p.). In Spain, unemployment stood at 16.6 % for women against 13.9 % for men (difference of 2.7 p.p.). Nevertheless, in the third quarter of 2020, the share of unemployed men in the extended labour force exceeded by 1 p.p. or more the share of unemployed women in Bulgaria, Lithuania, Finland and Latvia. In contrast, four EU Member States registered an unemployment rate of 4 % or lower of the extended labour force: Czechia (2.7 %), Poland (3.1 %), Germany (3.5 %) and the Netherlands (4.0 %). All these countries moreover recorded a gender gap smaller than 0.7 p.p.

Figure 10: Unemployment (ILO) by sex and country, Q3 2020
(people aged 15-74, in % of the extended labour force)
Source: Eurostat (lfsi_sla_q)

Figure 11: Change in the unemployment (ILO) as % of the extended labour force by sex and country
(people aged 15-74, Q3 2020 compared to Q4 2019, in percentage points)
Source: Eurostat (lfsi_sla_q)

Between the last quarter of 2019 and the third quarter of 2020, the unemployment rate increased by 0.8p.p. at EU level (see the dynamic tool choosing unemployment (ILO) and Figure 11). However, the share of unemployed people fluctuated by more than 1 p.p. in 16 countries. Estonia, Lithuania and Latvia, where the unemployment stood in the third quarter of 2020 at 7.6 %, 9.5 % and 8.0 % respectively, recorded the most substantial increases compared to the last quarter of 2019 (+3.6 p.p., +3.2 p.p. and +2.0 p.p.). In contrast, the share of unemployed people in the extended labour force decreased, from the last quarter of 2019 to the third quarter of 2020, in Greece (-0.3 p.p.).

It might be useful to remind in this specific section on unemployment that in order to be considered unemployed according to the ILO's criteria, a person should be without work during the reference week, available to start working within the next two weeks (or has already found a job to start within the next three months) and be actively having sought employment at some time during the last four weeks. The end of the lock-down and the restart of business activities and public sectors in many countries at the third quarter might explain as previously mentioned in the article the change in the job search of people or their availability, leading to an increase of unemployment including if employment might have also increased.

Focus on the potential additional labour force

The share of the potential additional labour force in the extended labour force increased or was stable in all EU Member States, apart from Latvia and Denmark where it slightly decreased

As already mentioned, the potential additional labour force consists of two subgroups. One of the groups includes people who are available to work but do not seek it. At EU level, in the third quarter of 2020, this category accounted for 6.7 % of the population outside the labour force (i.e. the not the extended labour force) (see Figure 12). The other group is related to persons who seek work but are not immediately available to start working; this last group stood at 1.4 % of the population outside the (not extended) labour force. In total, 8.1 % of the population outside the (not extended) labour force are actually connected to employment by expressing a certain willingness or demand for work. All countries, apart from Lithuania, follow the same main pattern clearly visible in Figure 12: people available to work but not seeking outnumber those seeking work but not immediately available.

Figure 12: Subcategories of the potential additional labour force, Q3 2020
(people aged 15-74, in % of the population outside the labour force)
Source: Eurostat (lfsi_sup_q)

The size of the potential additional labour force in proportion of the extended labour force is displayed in Figure 13. In Italy, in the third quarter of 2020, 10.4 % of people in the extended labour force were people available to work but not seeking or seeking but not immediately available. Italy was followed by Finland, Ireland, Spain, Luxembourg and Estonia that also recorded percentages higher than 5 % (precisely, 6.4 %, 5.8 % and 5.6 %, 5.5 % and 5.2 %). In contrast, in Czechia, Slovenia, Lithuania and Slovakia, less than two percent of the extended labour force consisted of people who were available to work and not seeking and people who were seeking but not immediately available.

_{Note: Due to low data reliability related to the category "people who are seeking but not immediately available", only persons available to work but not seeking are included in Figure 13 and 14 for Croatia, Malta and Romania. This is the reason for which they are not mentioned in the text.}

Gender differences can be found at EU level, the female potential additional labour force as % of the female extended labour force standing at 5.2 % and the male potential additional labour force as % of the male extended labour force at 3.7 %.

Figure 13: Potential additional labour force by sex and country, Q3 2020
(people aged 15-74, in % of the extended labour force)
Source: Eurostat (lfsi_sla_q)

File:Change in the potential additional labour force as % of the extended labour force by sex and country (people aged 15-74, Q3 2020 compared to Q4 2019, in percentage points).png

Figure 14: Change in the potential additional labour force as % of the extended labour force by sex and country
(people aged 15-74, Q3 2020 compared to Q4 2019, in percentage points)
Source: Eurostat (lfsi_sla_q)

In four out of the 24 EU Member States for which data is available for both categories of the potential additional labour force, in the third quarter of 2020, the share of unemployed people in the extended labour force exceeded by less 1 p.p. the share of the potential additional labour force. Both categories were quite close in the Netherlands, Ireland, Germany and Poland. Italy is the only country in Q3 2020 in which the share of the potential additional labour force i.e. 10.4 % exceeded the share of unemployment 9.2 %.

Figure 14 shows that the potential additional labour force went up in the vast majority of the EU countries for which data is available. Indeed, the share of people seeking and not available together with those available but not seeking as percentage of the extended labour force increased or was stable apart from Latvia and Denmark where it slightly decreased by -0.5 p.p. and 0.1 p.p. Between the last quarter of 2019 and the third quarter of 2020, the sharpest change for this category was observed in Spain (+1.6 p.p.), followed by Romania (+1.1 p.p. for people available but not seeking), Ireland and Portugal (both, +1.0 p.p.).

Focus on underemployed part-time workers

Highest shares of underemployed part-time workers in Spain, Cyprus, Ireland, France and Greece, very low shares in Czechia and Bulgaria

Inside the extended labour force, the highest shares of part-time workers wanting to work more were found in the third quarter of 2020 in Spain, Cyprus, Ireland, France (both France and France Metropolitan) and Greece (see Figure 15). In all these countries, 4 % or more of the extended labour force were underemployed part-time workers. More precisely, 5.0 % in Spain, 4.8 % in Cyprus, 4.5 % in Ireland, 4.3 % in France and in France Metropolitan and 4.2 % in Greece of people in the extended labour force had part-time jobs and wanted to work more hours. In contrast, 0.5 % or less of the extended labour force in Czechia and Bulgaria were underemployed part-time workers (0.3 % and 0.5 % respectively) making them a relatively small group within the extended labour force (see Figure 15).

At EU level, 2.9 % of the extended labour force were underemployed part-time workers. This share reached 4.2 % for the female population and increased to 1.8 % for the male population.

Figure 15: Underemployed part-time workers by sex and country, Q3 2020
(people aged 15-74, in % of the extended labour force)
Source: Eurostat (lfsi_sla_q)

Figure 16: Change in the underemployed part-time workers as % of the extended labour force by sex and country
(people aged 15-74, Q3 2020 compared to Q4 2019, in percentage points)
Source: Eurostat (lfsi_sla_q)

Compared to the last quarter of 2019 (see Figure 16), the share of underemployed part-time workers remained relatively stable as percentage of the extended labour force (+0.1 p.p. at EU level). Only two countries recorded an increase exceeding + 0.5 p.p. between both quarters, and only two countries recorded a decrease exceeding -0.5 p.p. The two countries corresponding to such an increase are the Netherlands and Sweden, where the shares of underemployed part-time workers increased by +0.6 p.p. in both countries accounting for 3.9 % of the total extended labour force, also for both countries. In contrast, Malta, Greece and Romania reported lower shares of underemployed part-time workers in Q3 2020 compared with 2019Q4 with differences of 0.6p.p. for Malta and Greece and 0.5p.p. for Romania.

Source data for tables and graphs

Labour market slack 2020Q2: tables and figures

Data sources

All figures in this article are based on seasonally adjusted quarterly results from European labour force survey (EU-LFS).

Source: The European Union labour force survey (EU-LFS) is the largest European household sample survey providing quarterly and annual results on labour participation of people aged 15 and over as well as on persons outside the labour force. It covers residents in private households. Conscripts in military or community service are not included in the results. The EU-LFS is based on the same target populations and uses the same definitions in all countries, which means that the results are comparable between countries.

European aggregates: EU refers to the sum of EU-27 Member States.

Country note: Due to technical issues with the introduction of the new German system of integrated household surveys, including the Labour Force Survey (LFS), the figures for Germany for the first and second quarter 2020 are not direct estimates from LFS microdata, but based on a larger sample including additional data from other integrated household surveys. A restricted set of indicators has been estimated and used for the production of the LFS Main Indicators. These estimates have also been used in the calculation of EU and EA aggregates, and are published for some selected indicators (estimates for Germany are flagged as p – provisional, and u – unreliable). For more information, see here.

Definitions: The concepts and definitions used in the Labour Force Survey follow the guidelines of the International Labour Organisation.

Five different articles on detailed technical and methodological information are linked from the overview page of the online publication EU Labour Force Survey.

Context

The COVID-19 pandemic hit Europe in January and February 2020, with the first cases confirmed in Spain, France and Italy. COVID-19 infections have now been diagnosed in all European Union (EU) Member States. To fight the pandemic, EU Member States have taken a wide variety of measures. From the second week of March, most countries closed retail shops apart from supermarkets, pharmacies and banks. Bars, restaurants and hotels have also been closed. In Italy and Spain, non-essential production was stopped and several countries imposed regional or even national lock-down measures which further stifled the economic activities in many areas. In addition, schools were closed, public events were cancelled and private gatherings (with numbers of persons varying from 2 to 50) were banned in most Member States.

The large majority of the prevention measures were taken during mid-March 2020 and most of the prevention measures and restrictions were kept for the whole of April and May 2020. The first quarter of 2020 is consequently the first quarter in which the labour market across the EU has been affected by COVID-19 measures taken by the Member States.

Employment and unemployment as defined by the ILO concept are, in this particular situation, not sufficient to describe the developments taking place in the labour market. In this first phase of the crisis, active measures to contain employment losses led to absences from work rather than dismissals, and individuals could not search for work or were not available due to the containment measures, thus not counting as unemployed.

The three indicators supplementing the unemployment rate presented in this article provide an enhanced and richer picture than the traditional labour status framework, which classifies people as employed, unemployed or outside the labour force, i.e. in only three categories. The indicators create ‘halos’ around unemployment. This concept is further analysed in a Statistics in Focus publication titled 'New measures of labour market attachment', which also explains the rationale of the indicators and provides additional insight as to how they should be interpreted. The supplementary indicators neither alter nor put in question the unemployment statistics standards used by Eurostat. Eurostat publishes unemployment statistics according to the ILO definition, the same definition as used by statistical offices all around the world. Eurostat continues publishing unemployment statistics using the ILO definition and they remain the benchmark and headline indicators.