Labour market

Although it has been tried to harmonise the criminal statistics internationally, the data of registered offences are comparable with other countries only in case of certain offences and in general terms. Different definitions and practises of justice administration also have an impact on criminal statistics. Statistics Estonia has conducted the Safety Survey once in 2008–2009. This survey collected data on crime and intimate partner abuse. As the Safety Survey discusses the violence and safety in a broader way, the data of the survey cannot be directly compared with the statistics of registered offences. The next Safety Survey which will be harmonised all over Europe is going to be conducted in 2014. It also includes the module of violence the objective of which is to measure people’s contact with the violence at home as well as outside it.

Although it has been tried to harmonise the criminal statistics internationally, the data of registered offences are comparable with other countries only in case of certain offences and in general terms. Different definitions and practises of justice administration also have an impact on criminal statistics. Statistics Estonia has conducted the Safety Survey once in 2008–2009. This survey collected data on crime and intimate partner abuse. As the Safety Survey discusses the violence and safety in a broader way, the data of the survey cannot be directly compared with the statistics of registered offences. The next Safety Survey which will be harmonised all over Europe is going to be conducted in 2014. It also includes the module of violence the objective of which is to measure people’s contact with the violence at home as well as outside it.

While producing labour market statistics, with regard to definitions and indicators, the compatibility with the International Labour Organization (ILO) and Eurostat (the Statistical Office of the European Communities) is taken into account. Recommendations of the OECD (Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development) are also taken into account.

More frequently used definitions in labour market context

Discouraged persons – non-working persons who would like to work and would be available for work as soon as there was work, but who are not actively seeking work because they do not believe in the chance of finding any.

Economically active population / labour force – persons who wish and are able to work (total of employed and unemployed persons).

Economically passive / inactive population – persons who do not wish or are not able to work.

Employed – a person who during the reference period worked and was paid as a wage earner, entrepreneur or a free-lancer; worked without direct payment in a family enterprise or on his / her own farm; was temporarily absent from work.

Employment rate – the share of the employed in the working-age population.

Unemployed – a person who fulfils the following three conditions: he or she is without work (does not work anywhere at the moment and is not temporarily absent from work); he or she is currently (in the course of two weeks) available for work if there should be work; he or she is actively seeking work.

Unemployment rate – the share of the unemployed in the labour force.

Working-age / labour-age population – the part of the population that is used as the basis when examining the economic activity of the population, or in other words, the population of the age that is the object of a labour force survey (population between the ages of 15 and 74).