From the course: Economics for Everyone: Job Markets and the Economy

Unlock the full course today

Join today to access over 22,400 courses taught by industry experts or purchase this course individually.

Unemployment and joblessness

Unemployment and joblessness

From the course: Economics for Everyone: Job Markets and the Economy

Start my 1-month free trial

Unemployment and joblessness

- Being unemployed and being jobless feel very much like the same thing, because they are. But when it comes to government data, there are big differences in the ways that unemployment and joblessness are shown. It probably sounds counterintuitive, but in the United States, joblessness is defined by whether you file for and claim unemployment benefits. While the unemployment rate is a calculation using survey data rather than counting the number of people who are claiming to be unemployed. Also the Department of Labor publishes a weekly jobless claims report, while the unemployment rate shows up in the monthly employment situation report from the U.S Bureau of Labor Statistics. The number that most media, investors, and politicians trip all over themselves about is the unemployment rate. For them, that's the most important number that comes out at the beginning of every month. But if the labor market dynamics are changing…

Contents