Data for 2015
Composite Rate of Labour Underutilisation (LU4), 2015
2015, as ILO’s 2026 release gives it · stored as published, never rewritten
The unemployment rate counts only people who are actively looking for work and could start at once. This broader rate also counts people working fewer hours than they want and people who want a job but have stopped looking or cannot start yet — the International Labour Organization’s widest measure of work people want and do not have.
Composite Rate of Labour Underutilisation (LU4), 2015 covers 62 countries on 3 measures. Armenia is highest, at 39.976; Thailand is lowest, at 1.615. The middle country reads 14.816. Against 2014, 56 values changed (20 up, 36 down), 6 countries joined, 10 left.
Composite Rate of Labour Underutilisation (LU4) · Data for 2015
HighestArmenia
39.976
LowestThailand
1.615Shaded by value in five groups of equal size, darkest at the lowest end.
01Position · derived
The table
Every country and every column of Composite Rate of Labour Underutilisation (LU4), 2015, as published. ILO ranks nobody on this measure; the position is derived here by ordering the published values. “=” marks a shared position.
Showing 25 of 62 countries · select a heading to sort
| derived | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | ArmeniaARMWestern Asia | 39.976 | 43.83 | 36.054 | — |
| 2 |  Bosnia and HerzegovinaBIHSouthern Europe | 39.543 | 45.28 | 35.497 | — |
| 3 |  AlbaniaALBSouthern Europe | 38.716 | 42.09 | 35.913 | — |
| 4 |  South AfricaZAFSouthern Africa | 37.955 | 42.89 | 33.637 | — |
| 5 |  PalestinePSEWestern Asia | 33.300 | 51.77 | 27.578 | — |
| 6 |  SerbiaSRBSouthern Europe | 33.278 | 35.10 | 31.801 | — |
| 7 |  GreeceGRCSouthern Europe | 32.786 | 38.44 | 28.144 | — |
| 8 |  SpainESPSouthern Europe | 32.545 | 38.13 | 27.546 | — |
| 9 |  North MacedoniaMKDSouthern Europe | 31.492 | 31.41 | 31.550 | — |
| 10 |  CyprusCYPWestern Asia | 30.614 | 31.01 | 30.234 | — |
| 11 |  MontenegroMNESouthern Europe | 28.645 | 29.81 | 27.656 | — |
| 12 |  CroatiaHRVSouthern Europe | 26.146 | 27.93 | 24.523 | — |
| 13 |  ItalyITASouthern Europe | 26.115 | 30.97 | 22.255 | — |
| 14 |  Costa RicaCRICentral America | 25.798 | 34.87 | 19.177 | — |
| 15 |  ChileCHLSouth America | 24.348 | 30.28 | 19.794 | — |
| 16 |  PortugalPRTSouthern Europe | 23.681 | 25.69 | 21.729 | — |
| 17 |  FranceFRAWestern Europe | 21.721 | 23.68 | 19.897 | — |
| 18 |  FinlandFINNorthern Europe | 20.169 | 20.38 | 19.966 | — |
| 19 |  Dominican RepublicDOMCaribbean | 19.878 | 27.29 | 14.423 | Break in series |
| 20 |  GhanaGHAWestern Africa | 18.766 | 19.62 | 17.757 | Break in series |
| 21 |  UruguayURYSouth America | 18.130 | 22.08 | 14.729 | — |
| 22 |  LatviaLVANorthern Europe | 17.825 | 17.60 | 18.049 | — |
| 23 |  SloveniaSVNSouthern Europe | 17.609 | 19.73 | 15.784 | — |
| 24 |  NetherlandsNLDWestern Europe | 17.463 | 20.82 | 14.515 | — |
| 25 |  IrelandIRLNorthern Europe | 17.291 | 16.95 | 17.570 | — |
| 26 |  BrazilBRASouth America | 16.758 | 20.93 | 13.508 | — |
| 27 |  ParaguayPRYSouth America | 16.740 | 21.55 | 12.505 | — |
| 28 |  LuxembourgLUXWestern Europe | 15.722 | 18.51 | 13.307 | — |
| 29 |  BulgariaBGREastern Europe | 15.688 | 15.20 | 16.112 | — |
| 30 |  ColombiaCOLSouth America | 15.674 | 20.71 | 11.855 | — |
| 31 |  SlovakiaSVKEastern Europe | 14.860 | 16.99 | 13.095 | — |
| 32 |  BarbadosBRBCaribbean | 14.771 | 14.21 | 15.320 | Break in series |
| 33 |  BelgiumBELWestern Europe | 14.702 | 15.61 | 13.916 | — |
| 34 |  SwedenSWENorthern Europe | 14.473 | 15.50 | 13.539 | — |
| 35 |  United KingdomGBRNorthern Europe | 14.235 | 16.11 | 12.580 | — |
| 36 |  AustriaAUTWestern Europe | 14.043 | 15.84 | 12.442 | — |
| 37 |  El SalvadorSLVCentral America | 13.881 | 12.88 | 14.568 | — |
| 38 |  RomaniaROUEastern Europe | 13.299 | 12.67 | 13.780 | — |
| 39 |  IcelandISLNorthern Europe | 12.920 | 15.23 | 10.769 | — |
| 40 |  BelizeBLZCentral America | 12.397 | 18.36 | 8.608 | — |
| 41 |  LithuaniaLTUNorthern Europe | 12.179 | 11.53 | 12.840 | — |
| 42 |  PolandPOLEastern Europe | 12.173 | 13.70 | 10.898 | Break in series |
| 43 |  EstoniaESTNorthern Europe | 11.656 | 12.60 | 10.741 | — |
| 44 |  HungaryHUNEastern Europe | 11.496 | 12.26 | 10.849 | — |
| 45 |  KyrgyzstanKGZCentral Asia | 11.334 | 14.26 | 9.278 | — |
| 46 |  MauritiusMUSEastern Africa | 11.013 | 15.24 | 8.205 | — |
| 47 |  DenmarkDNKNorthern Europe | 10.655 | 11.61 | 9.816 | — |
| 48 |  GermanyDEUWestern Europe | 10.652 | 12.21 | 9.294 | — |
| 49 |  NorwayNORNorthern Europe | 10.487 | 11.16 | 9.894 | — |
| 50 |  TogoTGOWestern Africa | 10.225 | 11.27 | 9.147 | — |
| 51 |  MaltaMLTSouthern Europe | 9.882 | 11.07 | 9.116 | — |
| 52 |  PanamaPANCentral America | 9.496 | 10.72 | 8.650 | — |
| 53 |  SeychellesSYCEastern Africa | 9.448 | 10.43 | 8.467 | — |
| 54 |  CanadaCANNorthern America | 9.201 | 9.11 | 9.278 | — |
| 55 |  BoliviaBOLSouth America | 7.742 | 10.15 | 5.968 | — |
| 56 |  GuatemalaGTMCentral America | 7.730 | 11.39 | 5.873 | — |
| 57 |  Sri LankaLKASouthern Asia | 7.227 | 11.22 | 4.980 | — |
| 58 |  United StatesUSANorthern America | 7.176 | 7.01 | 7.326 | — |
| 59 |  CzechiaCZEEastern Europe | 6.716 | 8.37 | 5.400 | — |
| 60 |  MoldovaMDAEastern Europe | 5.614 | 4.04 | 7.328 | — |
| 61 |  VietnamVNMSouth-eastern Asia | 4.364 | 4.31 | 4.417 | — |
| 62 | ThailandTHASouth-eastern Asia | 1.615 | 1.51 | 1.703 | — |
02In 2015
At either end
The 5 countries at each end of the headline, then the highest and lowest on each other measure.
Highest
- 1Armenia39.976
- 2Bosnia and Herzegovina39.543
- 3Albania38.716
- 4South Africa37.955
- 5Palestine33.300
Lowest
- 62Thailand1.615
- 61Vietnam4.364
- 60Moldova5.614
- 59Czechia6.716
- 58United States7.176
A higher value is the worse result. The middle country reads 14.816. “Shared” marks a value another country also holds.
Each measure’s ends
032014 → 2015
Since 2014
- +6 / −10countries joined / left
- 56values changed, of 56 in both
- 20 · 36rose · fell
- 0unchanged
Rose most
- Brazil14.424 → 16.758+2.334
- Luxembourg13.546 → 15.722+2.176
- Norway9.072 → 10.487+1.415
- Uruguay16.857 → 18.130+1.273
- Finland19.100 → 20.169+1.069
+ Barbados+ Dominican Republic+ Ghana+ Palestine+ Seychelles+ Togo
− Afghanistan
− Burundi
− Brunei
− Comoros
− Micronesia
− South Korea
− Rwanda
− Sierra Leone
− Yemen
− Zimbabwe04Caveats
Read before you use
One year of the 2026 release
Every year in this series comes from ILO’s 2026 release, recalculated on one method, so a change from one year to the next is not a revision. It can differ from what was first published for 2015.
58 empty cells
An empty cell means the publisher gave no figure. It is never a zero.
Some readings carry a flag
ILO marks readings it considers estimates or provisional. The flags in this file: Break in series.
05The files
Download and cite
- .csv
For a spreadsheet or code
62 rows · 3.5 KB · UTF-8, opens in Excel
Opens with 11 lines of source notes; the table starts on row 13.
Download labour-underutilisation-2015-nations-inquiry.csv - ↗
The publisher’s original
ILO’s own file, on its own site.
https://rplumber.ilo.org/data/indicator/?id=LUU_XLU4_SEX_RT&format=.csv&channel=ilostat
What this site changed: Reshaped to one row per country, with its ISO code; no value recalculated, rescaled or rounded. In full
Licence: CC BY 4.0 · what it allows, in plain words
Cite this edition
International Labour Organization (ILO) (2015). Composite Rate of Labour Underutilisation (LU4), 2015 [data set], describing 2015. As held by Nations Inquiry, https://nationsinquiry.com/datasets/labour-underutilisation/2015
0611 held
Other years
‹ The year before
Composite Rate of Labour Underutilisation (LU4), 201466 countries
The year after ›
Composite Rate of Labour Underutilisation (LU4), 201667 countries
All of them
Composite Rate of Labour Underutilisation (LU4): every year11 held, with the data dictionary, coverage and licence.
How it has moved, charted by country