What Is the Definition of Unemployment?

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By
Mike Moffatt
Professor of Business, Economics, and Public Policy
  • Ph.D., Business Administration, Richard Ivey School of Business
  • M.A., Economics, University of Rochester
  • B.A., Economics and Political Science, University of Western Ontario
Mike Moffatt, Ph.D., is an economist and professor. He teaches at the Richard Ivey School of Business and serves as a research fellow at the Lawrence National Centre for Policy and Management.
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Mike Moffatt
Updated March 17, 2017

Conceptually, unemployment is the state of an individual looking for a paying job but not having one.  As a result, unemployment does not include individuals such as full-time students, the retired, children, or those not actively looking for a paying job.  It also doesn't count individuals who work part-time but would like a full-time job.  Mathematically, the unemployment rate is equal to the number of unemployed people divided by the size of the labor force.  The Bureau of Labor Statistics publishes this basic unemployment rate (known as U-3) as well as a number of related measures (U-1 through U-6) in order to give a more nuanced view of the unemployment situation in the U.S.

Terms related to Unemployment:

  • Frictional Unemployment
  • Cyclical Unemployment
  • Structrual Unemployment
  • Unemployment Rate

About.Com Resources on Unemployment: