Unemployment, and Labor Force

Who publishes unemployment data?
Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). Click here for the BLS website.

Definitions - Also see the BLS website - Definitions
Civilian noninstitutional population: includes everyone except those in armed forces, prisons, and residential care facilities (skilled nursing homes)
Civilian noninstitutional population 16 years and older: We will nickname this group “Working Age Population”
Working Age Population is divided into two groups: “Labor Force” & “Non-Labor Force”
Labor Force consists of those who are Employed and Unemployed.
Non-Labor Force: Part of the Working Age Population that is not employed and has made no attempt to find a job during the 4-weeks preceding the survey (see criteria for unemployed). As an extreme example, if someone is in their 20s and live in their mom’s basement and has no work, then they are excluded from Labor Force. You will see why this matters in the calculation of the unemployment rate,

What is the definition of an unemployed person per BLS?
3 criteria have been mentioned:
- They were not employed during the survey (relating to a specific week).
- They were available for work during the survey.
- They made at least one specific, active effort to find a job during the 4-week period ending with the survey week.

Labor Force Participation calculation:
(Labor Force / Civilian Noninstitutional Population) x 100

How is the unemployment rate calculated?
Unemployed divided by Labor Force (x 100 to get a %).

What factors can decrease the unemployment rate?
As indicated above, the unemployment rate is a quotient. Therefore any factor that decreases the numerator (unemployed) or increases the denominator (Labor Force) will increase the ratio.
In this case:
- If the number of unemployed people drops and the Labor Force remains constant, then the unemployment ratio decreases.
- If the number of unemployed remains the same, but the Labor Force figure increases.