Gross participation rate

The labour force (employed plus unemployed) as a percentage of the population.

The labour force consists of:
• People who work twelve hours a week or more, or
• People who have accepted a job of twelve hours a week or more, or
• People who indicate that they wish to work twelve hours a week or more, who are available to do so and are actively seeking work for twelve hours a week or more.

In this article we took the employed and unemployed labour force together, instead of just looking at the employed. This makes the results less sensitive to economic fluctuation. In the period 2002-2004 unemployment rose and the share belonging to the employed labour force fell. However, the decrease in the gross participation rate among people with a disablement is not the result of economic fluctuations.