Transcript Labor Market Overview - Central Washington University

Labor Market Overview
Some Definitions
• Market is an institution where buyers and sellers interact to
determine the price and quantity transacted.
• The labor market summarizes the interaction of over 140
million workers and over 7 million employers. The are
various ways to categorize labor markets
–
–
–
–
–
National market – overall employment/unemployment
Local market – Seattle vs. Ellensburg
Occupational market – medical doctors vs. metal workers
Industry market – automobile vs. railroad (SIC codes)
Internal labor market – rules constraining the employment
relationship within a firm.
Employment Statistics
• The Bureau of Labor and Statistics is the federal
governmental unit in charge of collecting and reporting
employment data. The BLS website is: http://www.bls.gov .
• The Economic Report of the President is also a good source
of data on the US economy
http://www.gpoaccess.gov/eop/download.html
• Employment data are collected in the Current Population
Survey (CPS) is a monthly survey of 60,000 households
across the U.S. conducted by the Bureau of Census for the
Bureau of Labor Statistics. It provides a comprehensive body
of data on the labor force, employment, unemployment, and
persons not in the labor force.
www.bls.gov
Who is counted as employed?
• Employed persons consist of:
– All persons who did any work for pay or profit during
the survey reference week.
– All persons who did at least 15 hours of unpaid work
in a family-operated enterprise.
– All persons who were temporarily absent from their
regular jobs because of illness, vacation, bad
weather, industrial dispute, or various personal
reasons.
www.bls.gov
Who is counted as unemployed?
• Unemployed persons are:
– All persons who were not classified as
employed during the survey reference
week, made specific active efforts to find a
job during the prior 4 weeks, and were
available for work.
– All persons who were not working and were
waiting to be called back to a job from
which they had been temporarily laid off.
www.bls.gov
Figure 2.1
Labor Force Status of the U.S. Adult Civilian
Population, April 2013
Go to BLS.gov
Not seasonally adjusted
Mar.
Employment status, sex, and age
Seasonally adjusted
Feb.
Mar.
Mar.
Feb.
Mar.
2003
2004
2004
2004
220,317
145,801
66.2
136,783
62.1
9,018
6.2
74,516
4,763
222,357
146,154
65.7
137,384
61.8
8,770
6.0
76,203
4,622
2004
2003
TOTAL
Civilian noninstitutional population..............
Civilian labor force............................
Participation rate........................
Employed......................................
Employment-population ratio...............
Unemployed....................................
Unemployment rate.........................
Not in labor force..............................
Persons who currently want a job..............
www.bls.gov
222,550 220,317 222,357 222,550
146,525 145,818 146,471 146,650
65.8
66.2
65.9
65.9
137,691 137,300 138,301 138,298
61.9
62.3
62.2
62.1
8,834
8,519 8,170 8,352
6.0
5.8
5.6
5.7
76,025 74,499 75,886 75,900
4,667
4,974 4,746 4,843
Flows in Labor Data
• Employed to Unemployed: Quits
(voluntary) or layoffs (involuntary)
• Unemployment to Employed: Newly hired
or Recalled
• Labor force to Not in the Labor Force:
Retiring or Dropping Out
• Not in Labor Force to Labor Force: Newly
Entering or Rentering
Figure 3 Labor Force Participation Rates for
Men and Women Since 1950
Labor-Force
Participation
Rate (in percent)
100
80
Men
60
40
Women
20
0
1950 1955 1960 1965 1970 1975 1980 1985 1990 1995 2000
Copyright©2003 Southwestern/Thomson Learning
Figure 2.2 Unemployment Rates for the Civilian Labor Force, 1947–2012 (detailed data
in table inside front cover)
Unemployment rate
is the ratio of those
unemployed (U) to
those in the labor
force (LF):
•Varies from year to
year, by region, by state,
by gender, and by race
•Tends to be low when
the labor market is tight
and high when the labor
market is loose, which
happened in 2009.
Figure 2.3 Employment Distribution by Major Nonfarm Sector, 1954–2013
(detailed data in table inside front cover)
Using the CPI to convert present values into past values and vice versa – see row 4
for 1980, 1990, and 2012:
Computations
1980
1990
2012
Row 3:
$6.85
x100  $8.31
82.4
$19.77
x100  $8.61
229.6
Row 4:
229.6
x $6.85  $19.09
82.4
$10.20
x100  $7.80
130.7
229.6
x $10.20  $17.92
130.7
(0.99)31x$19.09
≈ $13.97
(0.99)21x $17.92
≈ $14.51
Row 5:
(Adjustment in
real wages by 1%)
229.6
x $19.77  $19.77
229.6
$19.77
Real Earning in Non-ag 1959-2003
18.00
16.00
14.00
10.00
8.00
6.00
4.00
2.00
0.00
19
64
19
67
19
70
19
73
19
76
19
79
19
82
19
85
19
88
19
91
19
94
19
97
20
0
20 0
03
p
Year
12.00
Earnings
Figure 2.4 Relationship among Wages, Earnings, Compensation, and Income
8.0
7.0
6.0
5.0
Total
4.0
Wages and Salaries
3.0
Benefits
2.0
1.0
Year
00
20
97
19
94
19
91
19
88
19
85
19
82
0.0
19
Percentage Change from
Previous 12 Months
Total Compensation, Wages and Salaries and
Benefits 1982-2003
Figure 2.5 The Markets in Which Firms Must Operate