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

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The labor force and population

The labor force and population

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

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The labor force and population

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- The term labor force gets thrown around a lot, but what is it? Is it the population? Is it people with jobs? Is it something else? It's important to know what the labor force is because people talk about it, it's where growth comes from, and if you're watching this video, chances are you're part of the labor force too. In short, if you're employed and have a job, or if you're unemployed and looking for a job, you're part of the labor force. If we think about it at the broadest level, every person living in a country is part of the population. Of that population, some people could be in the labor force. These people that are eligible to be in the labor force are considered the civilian non-institutional population. This is every able-bodied non-institutionalized civilian above a certain age. In the United States, this is people above the age of 16. Then there's the actual thing we call the labor force, which is…

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