The nation’s number of 'hidden' unemployed workers has doubled during the five years of the financial crisis. Before the crisis, there were about 35,000 hidden unemployed. Today, around 62,000 workers are lost in the shadows of hidden unemployment.
The hidden unemployed are potential workers not reflected in official unemployment statistics due to the way the statistics are collected. Only those who are out of work but actively looking for a job or qualify for social security benefits are counted as unemployed. Those who have given up looking for a job and fallen off of the dole are not officially counted, even though they may be ready and willing to work.
Current gross unemployment numbers of 170,000 do not take hidden unemployment into account.
The employment minister, Mette Frederiksen (Socialdemokraterne), called the underreporting "a real problem”.
