“We also top most international charts for jobless figures.” The Sun, 1 December, 2010

Background

This is the second claim from the same article that Full Fact has raised questions about. This one seems to be exaggerating the relative position of the UK compared to other countries on issues connected to unemployment.

Though it is unclear what The Sun means by jobless figures, it nevertheless seems there is little to back up this claim.

If we take a look at comparisons of unemployment, economic activity, workless households and the numbers claiming incapacity benefit, Britain does not come top on any of these overall measures. Although this is of course not a completely comprehensive list of 'jobless' figures.

Unemployment

Though there are of course more people who are not in work than who are officially counted as unemployed, this measure seems the best starting to point to see whether Britain tops the international chart.

From a quick glance at the most recent comparison by the OECD it becomes clear that we are not.

While the UK data in the chart is not for the same months as for the other countries examined there has been no great change in the rate that would significantly alter this position.

Given that youth unemployment is back in the news today, it is worth looking at how the UK fares here.

Even in Europe we are by no means top the chart. Indeed, the most recent Eurostat figures shows we are below the EU average, with a rate of 19.1% against 19.3% for 15 pre-expansion EU states.

While Germany and the Netherlands have lower rates than Britain, France, Spain, Italy and Ireland are in a worse position.

Where the UK does appear to have more of a problem is with the number of young people who are not in employment, education, or training (NEET). When the OECD published its economic outlook for the UK in 2010, the group warned that the rate of Neets was above the OECD average, with only a small number of countries having higher rates.

Workless Households

Since The Sun has cited the number of workless households perhaps we can assume this is the 'international chart' which backs up the claim.

Unfortunately for the red top this is not true either.

Though a recent comparison of Eurostat data by the Centre For Policy Studies found the UK was had the highest rate out of the six largest economies – when all of Europe was taken into account, Britain fell to 5^th as this table shows.

Labour participation rates

Another way of looking at the figures is looking at the proportion of economically active people in the economy.

The International Labour Organisation shows percentage of economically active people – that is people either in work or unemployed looking for a job – in relation to the total working age population.

This data shows that again our participation rates are the 11^th highest out of developed nations, and higher than the United States.

Although being economically active isn't the same as being in work, the figures do show that in terms of the proportion of people who are economically inactive (such as the long-term sick, early retired, or students, all people who are, to use the Sun's phrase “jobless” on one way or another) the UK does not top the international league.

Incapacity Benefit

This was the only place we could find any case for the UK being top of an international chart.

At four per cent, the rate of incapacity benefit recipients among the UK population was found to be the highest by the OECD.

However this research is quoted by The Sun in the sentence immediately preceding the one we chose to focus on, so presumably there are other international charts the paper has in mind.

But looking at the overall proportion of incapacity benefit claimants it can be seen that the UK falls back down the table, behind several Scandanavian and Eastern European countries.

Conclusion

While the metrics looked at above are by no means an exhaustive list of “international charts for jobless figures”, there is little to suggest that the UK is placed at the top of most or even many of these tables.

In terms of unemployment, workless households, economic activity, and incapacity benefit claimant for the all people of working age, the UK does not come off worst in international comparisons. However, the UK does seem to have a relatively bigger problem with figures relating to young people.

While this is not to suggest that we compare favourably to all countries of a similar size or state of development it is shows a clear element of exaggeration to  the Sun's claim.