What does unemployment rate mean?

Measurement contract

Metric key

metric.unemployment

Unit

% of the labor force (modeled ILO estimate) (percent/labor-force)

Reference period

Annual; country-level measurement; observation year preserved from source

Source indicator

SL.UEM.TOTL.ZS

Alternative terms

unemployment, unemployed, jobs, labor, labour

Cross-country comparison

Disabled for this source series

Method

ILO modeled estimates combine nationally reported observations with modeled values and projections to provide consistent series coverage. The labor force includes employed and unemployed people.

Interpretation limits

• This is the modeled ILO series, not the national headline unemployment release.
• People outside the labor force are excluded from the denominator.
• WDI does not identify every imputed observation in this response. Cross-country ranking and comparison are disabled because ILO warns against comparing imputed observations.
• Differences between rates are measured in percentage points.