What is the US Labor Force?

The US Labor force is the number of employed plus the unemployed. 

What is Employed and Unemployed?

Employed: currently working for pay

Unemployed: Out of work and actively looking for a job

Should we count everyone without a job as unemployed? Of course not. For example, we should not count children as unemployed. Surely, we should not count the retired as unemployed. Many full-time college students have only a part-time job, or no job at all, but it seems inappropriate to count them as suffering the pains of unemployment. Some people are not working because they are rearing children, ill, on vacation, or on parental leave.

What is Out of the Labor Force?

The point is that we do not just divide the adult population into employed and unemployed. A third group exists: people who do not have a job, and for some reason—retirement, looking after children, taking a voluntary break before a new job—are not interested in having a job, either. It also includes those who do want a job but have quit looking, often due to discouragement due to their inability to find suitable employment. Economists refer to this third group of those who are not working and not looking for work as out of the labor force or not in the labor force.

Out of the labor force: Out of paid work and not actively looking for a job

What is the  Unemployment Rate?

The U.S. unemployment rate, which is based on a monthly survey carried out by the U.S. Bureau of the Census, asks a series of questions to divide the adult population into employed, unemployed, or not in the labor force. To be classified as unemployed, a person must be without a job, currently available to work, and actively looking for work in the previous four weeks. Thus, a person who does not have a job but who is not currently available to work or has not actively looked for work in the last four weeks is counted as out of the labor force.

The unemployment rate is not the percentage of the total adult population without jobs, but rather the percentage of adults who are in the labor force but who do not have jobs:

Unemployment rate = Unemployed people × 100

What is Underemployed? 

Even with the “out of the labor force” category, there are still some people who are mislabeled in the categorization of employed, unemployed, or out of the labor force. There are some people who have only part time or temporary jobs, and they are looking for full time and permanent employment that are counted as employed, although they are not employed in the way they would like or need to be. Additionally, there are individuals who are underemployed. This includes those who are trained or skilled for one type or level of work but are working in a lower paying job or one that does not utilize their skills. For example, we would consider an individual with a college degree in finance who is working as a sales clerk underemployed. They are, however, also counted in the employed group. All of these individuals fall under the umbrella of the term “hidden unemployment.” 

What are Discouraged Workers?

Discouraged workers, those who have stopped looking for employment and, hence, are no longer counted in the unemployed also fall into this group.

Related Topics

• What is the US Labor Force?
• Out of the Labor Force
• Labor Force Participation Rate
• Establishment Payroll Survey
• Bureau of Labor Statistics 
• Unemployment 
• Underemployed
• Full Employment Equilibrium
• Okun's Law
•  Issues with Measuring Unemployment

• Sticky Wage Theory (Economics)
• Implicit Contract Theory of Wages
•  Efficient Wage Theory
• Adverse Selection of Wage Cuts Argument
• The Insider-Outsider Model
• Relative Wage Coordination Argument
• Natural Rate of Unemployment
• Frictional Unemployment
• Structural Unemployment
• Labor Productivity - Explained
• Okun's Law
• How does U.S. unemployment insurance work?
• National Average Wage Index
• Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey
• Labor Surplus Area - Explained
• Lump of Labor Fallacy - Explained
• Bureau of Labor Statistics 
• ADP National Employment Survey
• Labor Theory of Value - Explained
• Wage Elasticity of Labor Supply