Unemployment rate - 3 year average

The unemployment rate is the number of unemployed persons as a percentage of the labour force (the total number of people employed and unemployed) based on International Labour Office (ILO) definition. Unemployed persons comprise persons aged 15 to 74 who fulfil all three following conditions: - are without work during the reference week; - are available to start work within the next two weeks; - have been actively seeking work in the past four weeks or have already found a job to start within the next three months. The indicator monitors high and persistent rates of unemployment and it helps to better understand the potential severity of macroeconomic imbalances. It points towards a potential misallocation of resources and general lack of adjustment capacity in the economy. The MIP scoreboard indicator is the three-year backward moving average, i.e. the data for year Y is the arithmetic average of data for years Y, Y-1 and Y-2. It is calculated: [URt+URt-1+URt-2]/3. The indicative threshold is 10%. The data source is the quarterly EU Labour Force Survey (EU LFS). The EU LFS covers the resident population in private households.