| Code | SL.UEM.INTM.MA.ZS |
| Indicator Name | Unemployment with intermediate education, male (% of male labor force with intermediate education) |
| Short definition | The percentage of the labor force with an intermediate level of education who are unemployed. Intermediate education comprises upper secondary or post-secondary non tertiary education according to the International Standard Classification of Education 2011 (ISCED 2011). |
| Long definition | The percentage of the labor force with an intermediate level of education who are unemployed. Intermediate education comprises upper secondary or post-secondary non tertiary education according to the International Standard Classification of Education 2011 (ISCED 2011). |
| Source | Education and Mismatch Indicators database (EMI), International Labour Organization (ILO), uri: https://ilostat.ilo.org/data/bulk/, publisher: ILOSTAT, type: external database, date accessed: September 25, 2025 |
| Topic | Social Protection & Labor: Unemployment |
| Dataset | WDI |
| Unit of measure | % of male labor force with intermediate education |
| Periodicity | Annual |
| Reference period | 1970-2023 |
| Aggregation method | Weighted average |
| Statistical concept and methodology | Methodology: Labor force surveys are the preferred source of statistics on employment by educational attainment, since they provide information on both the labor market situation of individuals and their level of educational attainment. Such surveys can be designed to cover virtually the entire non- institutional population of a given country, all branches of economic activity, all sectors of the economy and all categories of workers, including the self-employed, contributing family workers, casual workers and multiple jobholders. In addition, such surveys generally provide an opportunity for the simultaneous measurement of the employed, the unemployed and persons outside the labor force (and thus, the working-age population) in a coherent framework. Other types of household surveys and population censuses could also be used as sources of data on employment by educational attainment. The information obtained from such sources may however be less reliable since they do not typically allow for detailed probing on the labor market activities of the respondents.
Statistical concept(s): The unemployment rate conveys the number of persons who are unemployed as a percent of the labour force (i.e., the employed plus the unemployed). The unemployed comprise all persons of working age who were: a) without work during the reference period, i.e. were not in paid employment or self-employment; b) currently available for work, i.e. were available for paid employment or self-employment during the reference period; and c) seeking work, i.e. had taken specific steps in a specified recent period to seek paid employment or self-employment. Data disaggregated by level of education are provided on the highest level of education completed, classified according to the International Standard Classification of Education (ISCED). Data may have been regrouped from national classifications, which may not be strictly compatible with ISCED. |
| Development relevance | Focusing on the educational characteristics of the unemployed can aid to shed light on how significant long-term events in a country, such as skill-based technological change, increased trade openness or shifts in the sectoral structure of the economy, alter the experience of high- and low-skilled workers in the labor market. The information provided can have important implications for both employment and education policy. To the extent that persons with low education levels are at a higher risk of becoming unemployed, the political reaction may be either to seek to increase their education level or to create more low-skilled occupations within the country. Alternatively, a higher share of unemployment among persons with higher education could indicate a lack of sufficient professional and high-level technical jobs. In many countries, qualified jobseekers are being forced to accept employment below their skill level. Where the supply of qualified workers outpaces the increase in the number of professional and technical employment opportunities, high levels of skills-related underemployment are inevitable. A possible consequence of the presence of highly educated unemployed in a country is the “brain drain”, whereby educated professionals migrate in order to find employment in other areas of the world. |
| License URL | https://datacatalog.worldbank.org/public-licenses#cc-by |
| License Type | CC BY-4.0 |
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