In the framework of an effort to examine whether there exist major differences in the definition of unemployment between national concepts and the one adopted by the International Labour Organization (ILO), as well as if labour force surveys (LFS) based on small samples can lead to valid results, a survey was conducted in France, Germany, Italy and the United Kingdom. The sample was chosen, in most cases, according to the methodology of sampling with quotas, taking under consideration various demographic features of the population, such as age, gender, professional status etc. and was approximately 1000 persons in each country. After controlling for several factors the analysis concluded that differences are present while the question of the sample size has to be further explored.