Unemployment Metrics
Unemployment Metrics state what % of a certain population is employed
There are multiple unemployment metrics that should be looked at. Only focusing on one can be misleading
- Unemployment Rate
- Monthly Job Creation
- Labor Force Participation Rate
- U-6 Unemployment Rate
- Wage Growth (nominal and real)
Unemployment Metrics May Be Inaccurate
- Readers have to be careful about how "unemployment" is defined - there are many ways to define it
- The US unemployment rate excludes people who have stopped working
- For example, the US employment rate looks very low in 2018 (3.9%), but the % of the total working age population is not at a low
Better Unemployment Metrics
- Look at total working age population hours available against hours worked
- Gets rid of aberrations from par-time jobs and/or people holding more than one job