employment and unemployment

• claimant count


  number of people claiming unemployment benefits e.g. JSA
• labour force survey


  interview-based survey on 44,000 households
• cyclical unemployment


  unemployment caused by a slowdown or recession in the economic cycle
• structural unemployment


  unemployment caused by the changing structure of the economy
• frictional unemployment


  unemployment caused by people moving between one job and another
• seasonal unemployment


  unemployment at different points in the year
• underemployment


  individuals working less hours than desired or in a job that doesn't reflect skill level
• economic inactivity


  people of working age but not currently seeking work
• discouraged workers


  people unable to find work for a long time so stopped looking - becomes economically inactive
• unemployment


  individuals of working age that are not in work but actively seeking work
• employment


  being in paid work
• self-employed

  individuals that do not work for a firm
• full-time worker


  individual working 35-40 hour weeks
• part-time worker

  individual working for a proportion of the time of full-time workers
• labour force


  number of people of working age that are in work or unemployed but actively seeking work
• working age population


  those aged 16-65 years old
• voluntary unemployment


  individual choses not to accept a job at wage rate offered
• involuntary unemployment


  individual willing to work at current wage rate but cannot find a job
• geographical immobility


  workers cannot move to areas with vacancies
• occupational immobility


  mismatch between existing skills of population and new ones required
• real wage unemployment


  unemployment caused when wage rate across an economy is higher than market equilibrium
• underemployment and zero hour contracts


  any employment contract where the firm does not guarantee the worker a minimum number of hours