Understanding Employment (Cambridge (CIE) O Level Economics)

Revision Note

Employment Terminology

  • Key terms to understand are employment, labour force, unemployment, and full employment

  1. Employment: refers to the economic use of labour as a factor of production

  2. Unemployment: Someone is considered to be unemployed if they are not working but actively seeking work 

  3. 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, school children (these people are economically inactive)

  4. Full employment: describes the ideal situation when everyone in the economy who is willing and able to work has a job

Changing Employment Patterns

  • Many economies are experiencing changing patterns of employment within their workforce and there are numerous reasons for this
     

Causes of Changing Employment Patterns

Structure of the Economy

Proportion of Women Employed

Formal and Informal Work

  • As Economies develop over time, they tend to progress through the different sectors (primary, secondary and tertiary) resulting in changes to the employment pattern

  • E.g. More manufacturing jobs in the secondary sector attract workers who had previously worked in the primary sector

  • Changing social attitudes have increased the number of women entering the workforce

  • The proportion of women in the workforce still varies significantly between different economies e.g. Sweden has a much higher proportion of women in the workforce than India or Saudi Arabia 

  • Workers doing informal work are not included in employment statistics

  • Informal employment is much higher in less developed economies and tends to decrease as an economy develops

Proportion of Workers in the Public and Private Sector

Part-time and full-time

Work from home

  • Between the Second World War and the late 1980's, the number of public sector employees was large in many economies

  • With an increase in privatisation  and a move towards more market based economies, the percentage of employees in public sector work has decreased in many countries

  • Working part-time provides more flexibility to workers and in recent years, there has been an increase in the number of part-time workers

  • In some economies workers may not be able to find full-time work and may be working 2 or 3 part-time jobs to pay the bills

  • Covid 19 caused many people to think about their pattern of work. Many workers are reluctant to return to a commuting lifestyle and wherever possible, are continuing to work from home

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