The employment rate refers to the proportion of people in the population aged 15–74 years who are in employment. An employed person is a person who, during a certain week (reference week) performed some work for at least one hour as an employee, a self-employed person, or as a helper in a company belonging to a family member. People who did not perform any work as described above, but who were in employment or work that they were temporarily absent from during the entire reference week (for reasons such as holiday or illness) are also counted as employed persons.

The unemployment rate refers to the proportion of people in the labor force aged 15-74 years who are unemployed. An unemployed person is a person who was without a job during a certain week (the reference week) but who has been actively seeking work in the past four weeks and was available to start work within two weeks from the end of the reference week. The definition of an unemployed person also includes people who have found a job that starts within three months, provided they could have started working within two weeks from the end of the reference week.