You asked
How is unemployment calculated, specifically what is included in the unemployment calculation and what is not?
We said
The number of unemployed people in the UK is estimated by using the Labour Force Survey (LFS) and includes people who meet the international definition of unemployment specified by the International Labour Organisation (ILO). The ILO defines unemployed people as being:
without a job, having been actively seeking work in the past four weeks and able to start work in the next two weeks
out of work but have found a job and are waiting to start it in the next two weeks.
Details of the derivation of ILO unemployment in the LFS can be found in the LFS user guides, particularly volumes 3 and 4, available on the ONS website, linked below.