12-06-2015, 04:10 PM
(12-05-2015, 12:13 PM)Markster Wrote: The magic number that makes it all balance is labour force participation. People who are unemployed, but are not looking for work. Children, stay-at-home parents, retirees, etc, affect the numbers, but their counts are rarely reported in headlines.
If you are a megalomaniacal leader trying to improve your country's unemployment rate, then just give an incentive to people to stop looking for work.
In the US, the unemployment benefits run out quickly, so there is a large chunk of population that cannot find jobs but is no longer officially looking for work, so is not counted as unemployed. The result is an unemployment rate that's not comparable to Canada (or most other countries). Maybe not intentional but the end result is an understated underemployment rate.