“It’s a recession when your
neighbor loses his job; it’s a
depression when you lose your
own.”
-President Harry Truman
LABOR FORCE
Does not include:
1. People under 16 years old
2. People who cannot work
3. People who have stopped
looking for work
Is your retired grandfather
unemployed?
No- he is not looking for work
Is a woman who stays home with
her kids unemployed?
No- she is not looking for work
An aunt serving in the Armed Forces
is posted in Afghanistan. Is she
considered unemployed?
No- she is not a member of the
civilian labor force because she is
serving in the military
A thief serving time in prison lost his
job when he was convicted. Is he
unemployed?
No- those serving time in prison are
not in the adult population and
hence not in the labor force
Is a full time college student
unemployed?
Not unless he or she is not
working and looking for a job.
Unemployment should not hit 0%
Why?
Competition
When the economy is strongest- unemployment
should be from 3-5%
What is the unemployment rate right now?
http://data.bls.gov/pdq/SurveyOutputServlet
www.bls.gov (Bureau of Labor Statistics) they
calculate unemployment rate
Right now the unemployment rate is 5.1%
(national average)
Ohio in August was 4.7% (lower than national
average)
TYPES OF UNEMPLOYMENT
Structural
Industry becomes obsolete
Workers with certain skills have
nowhere to go
Seasonal
Landscapers, farmers, tourism
jobs
Downtimes of the year
Frictional
People entering job market or have
decided to leave a job to seek
“Greener Pastures”
Largest segment of unemployment
figure during periods of strong
economy, high employment time
Cyclical
Industry hit hard by downturn in the
economy
Auto workers laid off during
recessions
http://pewsocialtrends.org/pubs/733/luxury-necessity-recession-erareevaluations (Luxury of Necessity- this is a fantastic article that
goes through items that people originally reported as being a
necessity, but in the recession, changed their opinion to say luxury
and not necessary- I highly recommend reading this, and looking at
the charts)
online.wsj.com/article/SB124096661843766403.html (you will have
to copy and paste this to get to the site- article is about the Yankees
lowering their prices for seats during the recession because it didn’t
look good to have that many empty seats!)
http://www.goodhousekeeping.com/family/budget/deal-with-recession
(This has all sorts of tips on how to save money during a recession,
and even some career advice in a bad economy)