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Employment and unemployment. How do we calculate unemployment rates and what does it tell us?. What is the labor force?. Each month the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) assembles information on the labor force. What is the labor force?. Let’s start by figuring who it’s not
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Employment and unemployment How do we calculate unemployment rates and what does it tell us?
What is the labor force? • Each month the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) assembles information on the labor force
What is the labor force? • Let’s start by figuring who it’s not • Military personnel • Institutionalized population • Under 16 years old • People who don’t want a job • Stay-at-home parents • Retired people • Students • Discouraged workers
What is the labor force? • Let’s start by figuring who it’s not • Military personnel • Institutionalized population • Under 16 years old • People who don’t want a job • Stay-at-home parents • Retired people • Students • Discouraged workers who have given up looking for a job
What is the labor force? • Let’s start by figuring who it’s not • Military personnel • Institutionalized population • Under 16 years old • People who don’t want a job • Stay-at-home parents • Retired people • Students • Discouraged workers who have given up looking for a job
What is the labor force? • Let’s start by figuring who it’s not • Military personnel • Institutionalized population • Under 16 years old • People who don’t want a job • Stay-at-home parents • Retired people • Students • Discouraged workers who have given up looking for a job
What is the labor force? • Let’s start by figuring who it’s not • Military personnel • Institutionalized population • Under 16 years old • People who don’t want a job • Stay-at-home parents • Retired people • Students • Discouraged workers
What is the labor force? • Let’s start by figuring who it’s not • Military personnel • Institutionalized population • Under 16 years old • People who don’t want a job • Stay-at-home parents • Retired people • Students • Discouraged workers who have given up looking for a job
What is the labor force? • Let’s start by figuring who it’s not • Military personnel • Institutionalized population • Under 16 years old • People who don’t want a job • Stay-at-home parents • Retired people • Students • Discouraged workers who have given up looking for a job
Unemployment requirements • To be considered unemployed, you have to answer yes to all of these questions • 1. Over the age of 16. • 2. Actively looking for work. • 3. Unable to find any work, even part-time • What are ways the number of people classified as “unemployed” can get smaller, without actually meaning the economy is getting stronger?
How to calculate unemployment The number of unemployed people (divided by) The labor force
Unemployment Rate Practice • Assume a nation has 100 people total. Forty-five of them have jobs, and five of them are looking for jobs but cannot find them. The rest don’t have jobs and don’t want them.
Unemployment Rate Practice • Assume a nation has 100 people total. Eighty of them have jobs, and twenty of them are looking for jobs but cannot find them. The rest don’t have jobs and don’t want them.
Unemployment Rate Practice • Assume a nation has 100 people total. Ten of them have jobs. The rest don’t have jobs and don’t want them.
Question • Could we ever have an unemployment rate of 0%? • Why or why not? • Is that automatically a bad thing? • What is an acceptable unemployment rate?
Types of unemployment • Frictional—people entering the workforce for first time or re-entering after taking time off, people who move or quit their current job because they’d like to try something new • Examples:
Types of unemployment • Seasonal—people who temporarily lose their job every year around the same time because the job itself depends upon the season • Examples:
Types of unemployment • Cyclical—people who lose their jobs because of recessions • Examples:
Types of unemployment • Structural/Technological—people who lose their jobs because the economy itself is changing, particularly with the adoption of technology • Examples:
Oil boom town? • What is the impact of new jobs in the oil boom towns of North Dakota?
Top 10 then and now • What are the differences in the top 10 employers in the 1950s and now?