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Unemployment
Economics Words
Term | Definition |
---|---|
unemployed | The condition of not having a job but being a member of the labor force. To be considered unemployed, a person must be jobless yet actively searching for a job by having searched in the last 4 weeks. |
employed | The condition of having a job. |
labor force | The number of employed plus unemployed people age 16 and over. |
unemployment rate | The unemployment rate is equal to the number of unemployed persons divided by the number of people in the labor force. |
employment-to-population ratio | The number of employed people divided by the working age population. |
marginally attached workers | These are people ready and available to work who have conducted a job search within the past twelve months but have not searched in the last 4 week and are therefore not included in official unemployment statistics. |
"discouraged workers" | People who, for whatever reason, have given up the job search and are not officially classified as unemployed. The presence of discouraged workers in the economy means that the official unemployment rate understates actual unemployment. |
U1 | The unemployment rate that only includes people unemployment 15 weeks or longer, as published by the BLS |
U2 | The unemployment rate that only includes people who have lost a job as opposed to those who have quit or those who have entered or reentered the labor force, as published. |
U3 | The official unemployment rate published by the BLS. |
U4 | The unemployment rate that adds discouraged workers to the official unemployment rate, as published in BLS. |
U5 | The unemployment rate that includes all marginally attached workers, as published by the BLS. |
U6 | The most all-inclusive measure of unemployment as published by the BLS. Includes all those listed U1-U5 plus those who are employed part time because of economic reasons. |
frictional unemployment | Voluntary unemployment that occurs when a person enters the labor force and looks for a job. |
structural unemployment | Unemployment that is caused by the permanent destruction of jobs in a dying industry. |
creative destructure | As one industry is being born, another is dying. The death of old industry frees up land, labor, capital, and entrepreneurship that can now be employed in the new industry. |
cyclical unemployment | Unemployment associated with downturns in the business cycle. |
full employment | The level of employment that exists when the economy is being productively efficient. |
natural rate of unemployment | The rate of unemployment that exists when there is no cyclical unemployment present in the economy. |
labor force participation rate | The labor force divided by the working age population. |
efficiency wages | A wage that exceeds the market wage. Encourages workers productivity but also plays a role in creating unemployment. |