1. Unemployment: Meaning and Measurement Gunderson and Riddell

2. Main Questions  How is unemployment measured? Who is considered to be unemployed?  How do the incidence and duration of unemployment contribute to the overall rate?  How long is a typical Canadian unemployed? Does this vary across the population?  Why is the Canadian unemployment rate higher than the US?  Does the unemployment rate reflect the amount of hardship to the jobless?

3. Measuring Unemployment  Labour Force Survey  Census  Unemployment Insurance Claimants  The Canadian Experience

4. Hidden Unemployment  Labour force statistics  Marginal labour force attachment  Discouraged workers  Hidden unemployment

5. Labour Force Dynamics  Bathtub  Net flows  Gross flows

6. Incidence and Duration of Unemployment  UR  I x D  Youth  Older workers

7. Canada vs. the US  Minimum wage  Employment Insurance  Measurement of unemployed

8. Elements Understating Hardship and Loss  Discouraged workers  Secondary incomes reduce household production  Involuntary part-time unemployment  Lower incomes are more affected by unemployment  Social ills

9. Elements Overstating Hardship and Loss  Secondary incomes  Looking for part-time work  Employment Insurance

10. Complementary Measures  Eight alternate measures  Why they didn’t mean anything

11. Labour Market Disequilibrium  High or low unemployment rate is a relative term  Natural rate of unemployment  Stagflation  Unemployment rate is not the “omni-stat”

12. Unemployment: Causes and Consequences Gunderson and Riddell

13. Main Questions  What are the different types of unemployment?  What role does wage rigidity play in explaining unemployment?  In what sense can unemployment be voluntary?  How does imperfect information manifest itself in the labour market?  What is the role of Employment Insurance?

14. Types of Unemployment  Frictional  Structural  Seasonal  Demand Deficient

15. Involuntary Unemployment  Definition  Different from previous four?  Wage Rigidity

16. Search Unemployment  Imperfect information  Cost – Benefit Analysis

17. Economic Rationale for Employment Insurance  Morale hazard and adverse selection  “Career Guard”  Government Domain

18. Employment Insurance in Canada  Unemployment Insurance in 1940  Expansion in coverage 1971 – 72  Partially reversed in 1978 – 79  Changed again in 1996  Social program vs. Insurance

19. Economic Effects of EI  Incidence and Duration  Lay-offs  Employment Instability  Labour Supply  Interregional Mobility