The OECD harmonised unemployment rates (seasonally adjusted) give the numbers of unemployed persons as a percentage of the civilian labour force. Civilian labour force being the sum of unemployed persons and civilian employed persons. The definition of employment and unemployment conforms with the definition adopted by the 13th Conference of Labour Statisticians (generally referred to as the ILO guidelines) with the exception that employment and unemployment estimates are based on labour force surveys which cover only private households and exclude all people living in institutions.Eurostat gave a more precise definition of unemployment through the Commission Regulation (EC), no.1897/2000 in September 2000. The series are updated continuously.