An Introduction to Unemployment
- Key terms to understand are employment, labour force, unemployment, and full employment
- Employment: refers to the economic use of labour as a factor of production
- Unemployment: Someone is considered to be unemployed if they are not working but actively seeking work
- Labour force: A country's population is divided into the labour force - and non labour force
- The labour force consists of all workers actively working PLUS the unemployed (who are seeking work)
- The non labour force includes all those not seeking work e.g. stay at home parents, pensioners, and school children (these people are economically inactive)
- Full employment: describes the ideal situation when everyone in the economy who is willing and able to work has a job