Time series data for unemployment benefit in Local Insight

Explore how unemployment is changing during the COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent lockdowns with times series data in Local Insight. 

The Department for Work and Pensions publishes Unemployment benefit (JSA and Universal credit) every month. In turn, we update the data in Local Insight  to show the latest monthly snapshot. 

Given the dramatic changes to unemployment and the effects that it may have on your communities, we have added in the previous 3 months unemployment benefit data as individual indicators, so that you can see the month-on-month change for your areas. These datasets can be displayed on the map and downloaded for your custom areas.

Alongside the usual monthly updates for Unemployment (June 2020), we have added 3 historical time-points for the indicator Unemployment benefit (JSA and Universal credit):

• March 2020
• April 2020
• May 2020

How to view this data on Local Insight

The map

1. Click on the Data button
2. Search Unemployment using the search bar
3. You will see the most recent Unemployment benefit (JSA and Universal credit) indicator for the month of June 2020 and the 3 historic timepoints listed beneath

Download the data for all 4 timepoints for your custom areas

1. Click on the Data button
2. Search Unemployment using the search bar
3. You will see the most recent Unemployment benefit (JSA and Universal credit) indicator for the month of June 2020 and the 3 historic timepoints listed beneath
4. Select the first time point
5. Click on the Info button
6. Click Data for your areas (this will open up a popup with data for your custom areas)
7. Click Download this dataset in CSV format
8. Repeat this process for the other 3 timepoints 

Please note in the Data for your areas popup the table of data has two columns. The first column shows the percentage figure, the second column shows the count data. When you export the data to a CSV only the percentage figure is exported. Adding the count data to the export is one of the development priorities for Local Insight in 2020 and will be coming soon. 

Download the time series data for your custom areas using the dashboard

Select the data you want to show 

• Open the Dashboard tab 
• Click on the Data button 
• Select Build a custom dashboard
• Type in Unemployment benefit (JSA and Universal Credit) into the search bar
• You will then see all the time points available listed 
• Select the time points that you want to show in (they will show in order of selection) 
• Once you have selected all the time points click Done

Select the areas you want to show 

• Click on the Areas button 
• Select the area you want to show 
• Click Done 

Export the data 

Click on the export button to export the data into a CSV.

In the reports 

This data has not been added to the reports. The reports do however already contain a chart that shows how Unemployment benefit (JSA and Universal credit) has changed since 2004 (page 10).

Would you like to see more time series data in Local Insight?

We are looking at options to include more time series data within Local Insight. Please email support@ocsi.co.uk with any suggestions for what would be useful and to register interest in taking part in future user research on this topic. 

Removed Monthly Change in Unemployment Indicator

We have removed the indicator Monthly Change in Unemployment. The new indicators for Unemployment benefit (JSA and Universal credit) for the last four months supersede this indicator. For those groups who had it assigned to a theme, it will no longer be available. 

Further reading

If you are interested in how COVID-19 has affected employment and the economy more broadly, take a look at some of our recent analysis: 

• Widespread rises in unemployment rates show the economic impact of COVID-19
• Which local labour markets are most at risk?