 What does unemployed mean?  What do you think is a normal unemployment rate for a country  List of countries by unemployment rate unemployment_rate unemployment_rate  Why do you think Thailand’s unemployment rate is so low?

1. Labour Force Surveys: in which unemployed are defined as; International Labour Organisation (ILO) definition of unemployed people;  Without a job, want a job, have actively looked for work in the last 4 weeks and are available to start work in the next 2 weeks  Have found a job & are waiting to start in the next 2 weeks  Those who do not meet the criteria are ‘economically inactive’ 2. Claimant count: those who have registered for unemployment benefits Why is the claimant count lower than the ILO count?  See fig & 2 P :10 unemployment game show  How many US workers lost their jobs in 2008?

 Cyclical (or demand deficient) unemployment: linked to the economic cycle. Therefore unemployment will ↑ during downturns & recessions.  Structural unemployment 1. Sectoral unemployment; decline in a certain industry *N.B the  in employment in the UK coal industry (P157) 2. Technological unemployment, e.g. ATM’s and bank tellers 3. Regional unemployment  Frictional unemployment: moving between jobs/ sectors (not considered a problem, but can be sped up)  Seasonal unemployment, e.g. ski resort staff  Voluntary unemployment

 Peter lost his job when the car manufacturing plant relocated to China  Marty is currently unemployed as the swimming pool where he works as a life-guard is closed for the winter  John lost his job when his office was centralised, downsized & moved to London  Steven left his job as a Business Studies teacher to try to get a job in banking  Mitsui lost his job at Toyota when they made their production line more capital intensive.

 One of the big problems with structural unemployment is that labour tends to be immobile.  What does that mean? =that people are slow to switch jobs. Why? 1. Occupational mobility; don’t have the skills for jobs in a new sector/ industry so must retrain 2. Geographical mobility; don’t want to move *Do Q.1 P.158

 To the individual;  income, loss of homes (see margin note), family break up  To the business: redundancy pay, spare capacity, ↓ agg. demand  To the economy; ↓ production, ↓ tax revenue, ↑ benefit payments  To local communities Effects of unemployment (3:35) Q2 & Exam Practice Investigate Unemployment figures from your country Do Unemployment crossword