Labour Force Survey (LFS), December 2012:

In December 2012, the number of employed persons aged 15-74 years amounted to 4 663 000, an increase of 41 000 persons compared to the same period last year. The number of unemployed persons amounted to 371 000, corresponding to an unemployment rate of 7.4 percent. On average, the number of hours worked was 136.3 million per week. Seasonally adjusted data show a slight increase in both the number of employed and the number of unemployed.

In December 2012, the number of employed persons aged 15-74 amounted to 4 663 000 which corresponds to an employment rate of 65.4 percent. Seasonally adjusted, the number of employed persons amounted to 4 697 000. The employment rate was 65.8 percent for the population aged 15-74.

On average, the number of hours worked in December 2012 amounted to 136.3 million per week, not seasonally adjusted. Taking differences in holiday leave into account there is no statistically significant change compared to December 2011.

The number of unemployed persons aged 15-74 amounted to 371 000 in December 2012, corresponding to an unemployment rate of 7.4 percent. According to seasonally adjusted data, the number of unemployed persons aged 15-74 amounted to 395 000, resulting in an unemployment rate of 7.8 percent.

The labour supply not utilised consists of the unemployed, the underemployed and the latent job seekers. In December 2012 it amounted to 20.5 million hours per week on average, an increase of 1.6 million hours compared to the same period last year. During the same month, the number of latent job seekers increased by 26 000 to 166 000 persons and the number of underemployed increased by 33 000 to 324 000 persons.

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