ECON 205– Chapter 8
Unemployment and Employment
- Bureau of Labor Statistics: Releases stats on unemployment monthly
- US unemployment was 14.7% in April (highest since 1930s)
- Unemployment: the macroeconomic variable that affects people the most
personally
- College students graduating in 2020 will have a hard time finding jobs
- Post college labor influences future wage and job skills
- When more workers are unemployed, the production of goods and services is
lower than it would be normally
- Congress made supplementary unemployment benefits available thru July 2020,
but trouble begins once unemployed workers start looking for jobs
- Unemployment varies among groups or different races, gender, age, education,
and even across countries.
8.1) Unemployment and Other Labor Market Indicators
- How Is Unemployment Measured?
- US Census Bureau in Charge
- Population Survey: monthly survey of sample of US households (about
60,000) done by US Census Bureau. Measures employment,
unemployment, labor force and others.
- Who is Employed and Who is Unemployed?
- Unemployed: must be out of work AND looking for a job.
- Employed: have a job in or outside the home
- A teacher, a factory job, telemarketer, freelance editor are all
employed
- Unpaid job like caring for kids or working on the house is NOT
employment
- The Labor Force: All those 16 or older that are employed or unemployed.
, - If somebody isn’t counted as employed or unemployed, they aren’t part of
the workforce
- Working-Age Population: people over the age of 16 that aren’t in an
institution (i.e: jail or hospital)
- The Labor Force and Discouraged Workers
- The criteria for being part of the labor force CAN be subjective
- Ex: a retired person at age 65 is not part of the workforce
- Ex: a person who got laid off at 55, stopped looking for a job after 2
years is not part of the labor force
- Neither example is unemployed. Neither is part of the labor
workforce
- Discouraged Workers: those who leave the labor force after not being able
to find a job
- Part Time Work
- Current Population Survey: a person is counted if they worked the week
the survey was taken
- Part-time workers are therefore counted as employed.
- 23.4% of employed women work part time
- 11.7% of employed men work part time
- Comparing Three Key Indicators
- Unemployment Rate: percentage of the labor force that is unemployed
- Labor Force Participation Rate: the ratio of people in the labor force to the
working-age population
- Employment-To-Population Ratio: the ratio of employed workers to the
working-age population
- Unemployment Rate and Labor Force Participation both depend on the
labor force
- Labor force participation and employment-to-population both have been
trending upwards before COVID
- Participation in the labor force has also increased bc women entered the
workforce.
Unemployment and Employment
- Bureau of Labor Statistics: Releases stats on unemployment monthly
- US unemployment was 14.7% in April (highest since 1930s)
- Unemployment: the macroeconomic variable that affects people the most
personally
- College students graduating in 2020 will have a hard time finding jobs
- Post college labor influences future wage and job skills
- When more workers are unemployed, the production of goods and services is
lower than it would be normally
- Congress made supplementary unemployment benefits available thru July 2020,
but trouble begins once unemployed workers start looking for jobs
- Unemployment varies among groups or different races, gender, age, education,
and even across countries.
8.1) Unemployment and Other Labor Market Indicators
- How Is Unemployment Measured?
- US Census Bureau in Charge
- Population Survey: monthly survey of sample of US households (about
60,000) done by US Census Bureau. Measures employment,
unemployment, labor force and others.
- Who is Employed and Who is Unemployed?
- Unemployed: must be out of work AND looking for a job.
- Employed: have a job in or outside the home
- A teacher, a factory job, telemarketer, freelance editor are all
employed
- Unpaid job like caring for kids or working on the house is NOT
employment
- The Labor Force: All those 16 or older that are employed or unemployed.
, - If somebody isn’t counted as employed or unemployed, they aren’t part of
the workforce
- Working-Age Population: people over the age of 16 that aren’t in an
institution (i.e: jail or hospital)
- The Labor Force and Discouraged Workers
- The criteria for being part of the labor force CAN be subjective
- Ex: a retired person at age 65 is not part of the workforce
- Ex: a person who got laid off at 55, stopped looking for a job after 2
years is not part of the labor force
- Neither example is unemployed. Neither is part of the labor
workforce
- Discouraged Workers: those who leave the labor force after not being able
to find a job
- Part Time Work
- Current Population Survey: a person is counted if they worked the week
the survey was taken
- Part-time workers are therefore counted as employed.
- 23.4% of employed women work part time
- 11.7% of employed men work part time
- Comparing Three Key Indicators
- Unemployment Rate: percentage of the labor force that is unemployed
- Labor Force Participation Rate: the ratio of people in the labor force to the
working-age population
- Employment-To-Population Ratio: the ratio of employed workers to the
working-age population
- Unemployment Rate and Labor Force Participation both depend on the
labor force
- Labor force participation and employment-to-population both have been
trending upwards before COVID
- Participation in the labor force has also increased bc women entered the
workforce.
