Unemployment

Unemployment

In compiling unemployment statistics for the United States and other developed countries an unemployed person is defined as anyone who is capable of working and is actively seeking work but is unable to find a job.1Before a person can be unemployed in this sense he must be an active member of the labor force in search of a job. Students and Homemakers perform work, but they are not considered employed unless they are paid; however, they are not considered unemployed unless they are actively seeking gainful jobs.

In societies in which a majority of the citizens are able to earn a living by working for others, being unable to locate and obtain a job is a very serious problem. Unemployment is widely used as a measure of workers' welfare because of the human costs and feelings of rejection and personal failure. The proportion of workers unemployed also shows how well a nations human resources are used and serves as an index of economic activity. The civilian labor force comprises the total of all civilians classified as employed or unemployed. The total labor force also includes members of the Armed Forces stationed either in the US Or abroad. The unemployment rate represents the number unemployed as a percent of the civilian labor force.2

Unemployment can be divided percent of the civilian labor into three types known as frictional, structural, and cyclical. The first form of unemployment is frictional unemployment. Frictional unemployment arises because workers seeking jobs do not find them immediately. While looking for work they are counted as unemployed.3 This could happen if suppose a person loses a job, perhaps because the work is finished. For example a construction craftsman when the job is finished; or it could happen to an actor or actress when the show closes. It will ordinarily take some time before that person finds another job. But while construction workers and entertainers can ordinarily expect to face this problem from time to time, it is something that can happen to anyone employed. People who are simply between jobs, in this sense, are said to be frictionally unemployed. The amount of frictional unemployment depends on the frequency with which workers change jobs and the time it takes to find new ones.4 This is a particularly important category, since this category of unemployment can never be eliminated or reduced to zero. Even in the