The broad unemployment rate in September stood at 4.4%, or 203,800 people, an increase of 0.5% and 24,400 people compared with August, the Central Bureau of Statistics published in October.
The broad unemployment rate includes jobseekers who remained unemployed, workers who were absent from their workplace due to a temporary reduction in headcount for economic reasons (mainly workers on unpaid leave), workers who were laid off in the past two years and are not looking for work, and those who gave up looking for work.
The rate of jobseekers who remained unemployed stood at 3.2%, or 143,800 people, an increase of 0.3% and 12,800 people compared with August. This figure is commonly regarded as the official unemployment rate. The ratio between the number of jobseekers and the number of job vacancies stood at about 97 vacancies for every hundred jobseekers.
The Number of People Who Gave Up Looking for Work Rose to 23,300
The number of workers who were absent from work due to a temporary reduction in headcount for economic reasons (mainly workers on unpaid leave) stood at 12,200 in September, compared with 12,800 in August.
The number of workers who were laid off in the past two years and are currently not looking for work stood at 27,300 in September, compared with 23,200 in August.
The number of those who gave up looking for work, meaning those who said they want to work and looked for work in the past 12 months but not in the weeks immediately preceding the survey, stood at 23,300 in September, compared with 14,000 in August.