Définition
Unemployment represents all people aged 15 and older who do not have a job and are looking for one. Its measurement is complex. The borders between employment, unemployment and inactivity are not always easy to define, what often brings to speak about a "halo" around the unemployment.
In France there are two main statistical sources concerning employment : the monthly statistics of the Ministry of Labour, developed based on job seeker files recorded by the Pole Emploi (Pole Employment), and Insee's Labour Force Survey (LFS), which measures unemployment in the sense of the ILO.
Remarque
Since 2003, Labour Force Survey is realized continuously in Metropolitan France, while it was previously concentrated on a single month of the year. It thus allows either annual and quarterly evaluations of the unemployment in the sense of the ILO. In French Overseas Departements, Labour Force Survey takes place in the second quarter of the year.