Unemployment by constituency: change in methodology, 2013

The Library publishes a monthly Research Paper, Unemployment by Constituency, providing the latest data on the monthly count of Jobseeker’s Allowance (JSA) claimants in each parliamentary constituency in the United Kingdom. For the purposes of the paper, unemployment means the number of JSA claimants resident in each constituency.

Following the publication of new 2011 Census data for constituencies, the methodology for calculating the JSA claimant rates shown in the Research Paper was updated in the February 2013 edition (published 20 February 2013) in order to improve the accuracy of the rates. This note provides further detail on the methodology and an analysis by constituency of the effect of the changes.