U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics | Division of Labor Force Statistics, PSB Suite 4675, 2 Massachusetts Avenue, NE Washington, DC 20212-0001 www.bls.gov/CPS | Telephone: 1-202-691-6378 | Contact CPS. U.S. Bureau of Labor. Below are links to downloadable/printable documents that you may need to expedite your claim for Unemployment Insurance (UI). General Information Dealing with the Loss of a Job. I'm Unemployed, NOW what? Unemployment Insurance. Unemployment occurs when people who are without work are actively seeking work. The unemployment rate is a measure of the prevalence of unemployment and it is calculated as a percentage by dividing the number of unemployed.
Unemployed Friends
How the Government Measures Unemployment. How the Government Measures Unemployment (PDF)Why does the government collect statistics on the unemployed? When workers are unemployed, they, their families, and the country as a whole lose. Workers and their families lose wages, and the country loses the goods or services. In addition, the purchasing power of these workers is lost, which can lead to unemployment for yet other workers.
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Addressing the issue of unemployment requires information about the extent and nature of the problem. How many people are unemployed? How did they become unemployed? How long have they been unemployed?
Are their numbers growing or declining? Are they men or women? Are they young or old? Are they White, or Black, or Asian, or of Hispanic ethnicity? How much education do they have? Are they concentrated in one area of the country more than another? These statistics—together with other economic data—can be used by policymakers to determine whether measures should be taken to influence the future course.
Where do the statistics come from? Early each month, the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) of the U. S. Department of Labor announces the total number of employed and unemployed people. United States for the previous month, along with many characteristics about them.
Latest news: Unemployment fell by 102,000 to 1.86 million in the three months to the end of January, according to the latest Office for National Statistics (ONS) figures. The number of people claiming Jobseeker's Allowance in. The Durham Region Unemployed Help Centre provides job search guidance to the unemployed and assists employers fill job openings by connecting them with skilled, ready-to-work individuals. How the Government Measures Unemployment. Why does the government collect statistics on the unemployed? When workers are unemployed, they, their families, and the country as a whole lose. Workers and their families lose wages. Are you unemployed? Don't just skim job postings every day. work on your job skills! Here are five things you should be doing if you're unemployed.
These figures, particularly the unemployment rate—which tells you the percentage of the labor force. Some people think that to get these figures on unemployment, the government uses the number of people collecting unemployment insurance (UI) benefits under state or federal government. But some people are still jobless when their benefits run out, and many more are not eligible at all or delay or never apply for benefits. So, quite clearly, UI information.
Other people think that the government counts every unemployed person each month. To do this, every home in the country would have to be contacted—just as in the population census. This procedure would cost way too much and take far too long to produce the data. In addition, people would soon grow tired of having a census taker contact them. Because unemployment insurance records relate only to people who have applied for such benefits, and since it is impractical to count every unemployed person each month. Current Population Survey (CPS) to measure the extent of unemployment in the country.
The CPS has been conducted in the. United States every month since 1. Work Projects Administration program. In 1. 94. 2, the U.
S. Census Bureau took over responsibility for the CPS. The survey. has been expanded and modified several times since then. In 1. 99. 4, for instance, the CPS underwent a major redesign in order to computerize the interview process as well as to obtain. There are about 6.
This translates into approximately 1. The CPS sample is selected so as to be representative of the entire population of the. United States. In order to select the sample, all of the counties and independent cities in the country first are grouped into approximately 2,0. The Census Bureau. District of Columbia. The sample is a state- based design and reflects urban. Every month, one- fourth of the households in the sample are changed, so that no household is interviewed for more than 4 consecutive months.
After a household is interviewed for 4 consecutive. As a result, approximately 7. This procedure strengthens the reliability of estimates of month- to- month and year- to- year. Each month, highly trained and experienced Census Bureau employees contact the 6.
These are live interviews conducted. During the first interview of a household, the Census Bureau interviewer prepares a roster of the household members, including key personal. Hispanic ethnicity, marital status, educational attainment, veteran status, and so on. The information is collected using a computerized questionnaire. Each person is classified according to their activities during the reference week. Then, the survey responses are "weighted," or adjusted to independent population estimates from.
Census Bureau. The weighting takes into account the age, sex, race, Hispanic ethnicity, and state of residence of the person, so that these characteristics are reflected in the. A sample is not a total count, and the survey may not produce the same results that would be obtained from interviewing the entire population. But the chances are 9. Relative to total unemployment—which ranged between.
Because these interviews are the basic source of data for total unemployment, information must be correct and consistent. Survey respondents are never asked specifically if they are. Their status will be determined based on how they respond to a specific set of. Similarly, interviewers do not decide the respondents' labor force classification.
They simply ask the questions in the prescribed way and record the answers. Based on information. All interviews must follow the same procedures to obtain comparable results.
Because of the crucial role interviewers have in the household survey, a considerable amount of time. Interviewers are given intensive training, including classroom lectures, discussion, practice, observation, home- study materials. At least once a year, they attend day- long training and review sessions. Also, at least once a year, they are accompanied by a supervisor during a full day of. What are the basic concepts of employment and unemployment? The basic concepts involved in identifying the employed and unemployed are quite simple. People with jobs are employed.
People who are jobless, looking for a job, and available for work are unemployed. The labor force is made up of the employed and the unemployed. People who are neither employed nor unemployed are not in the labor force. The survey excludes people living in institutions (for example, a correctional institution or a residential nursing or mental health care facility) and those on active duty in the. Armed Forces. The survey is designed so that each person age 1.
The sum of the employed and the. People not in the labor force combined with those in the civilian labor force constitute the civilian noninstitutional population. Under these concepts, most people are quite easily classified. For example, consider these fictional scenarios.
Elena reported to the interviewer that last week she worked 4. Elena is employed. Steve lost his job when the local plant of an aircraft manufacturing company closed down. Since then, he has been contacting other businesses in town trying to find a job.
Steve is unemployed. Linda is a stay- at- home mother. Last week, she was occupied with her normal household activities. She neither held a job nor looked for a job. Her 8. 0- year- old father. Linda and her father are not in the labor force. Who is counted as employed?
People are considered employed if they did any work at all for pay or profit during the survey reference week. This includes all part- time and temporary work, as well as. Individuals also are counted as employed if they have a job at which they did not work during the survey week, whether they were paid or not. On vacation Ill Experiencing child care problems On maternity or paternity leave Taking care of some other family or personal obligation Involved in a labor dispute Prevented from working by bad weather. These people are counted among the employed and tabulated separately as with a job but not at work, because they have a specific job to which they will return. Not all of the wide range of job situations in the American economy fit neatly into a given category, however. What about the two following cases?
Garrett is 1. 6 years old, and he has no job from which he receives any pay or profit. However, Garrett does help with the regular chores around his parents’ farm.
Lisa spends most of her time taking care of her home and children, but she helps in her husband's computer software business all day Friday and Saturday. Both Garrett and Lisa are considered employed. They fall into a group called unpaid family workers, which includes any person who worked without pay for 1. Unpaid family workers comprise a small proportion of total employment. Most of the employed are either. In addition to estimating the number of employed people, the survey collects information about the job characteristics of the employed. For example, the survey gathers and.
Who is counted as unemployed? People are classified as unemployed if they do not have a job, have actively looked for work in the prior 4 weeks, and are currently available for work. Actively looking for work may consist of any of the following activities. Contacting: An employer directly or having a job interview. A public or private employment agency.
Friends or relatives. A school or university employment center. Submitting resumes or filling out applications.
Placing or answering job advertisements Checking union or professional registers Some other means of active job search. Passive methods of job search do not have the potential to connect job seekers with potential employers and therefore do not qualify as active job search methods. Examples of. passive methods include attending a job training program or course, or merely reading about job openings that are posted in newspapers or on the Internet. Workers expecting to be recalled from temporary layoff are counted as unemployed whether or not they have engaged in a specific job seeking activity.
In all other cases. The questions used in the interviews are carefully designed to obtain the most accurate picture of each person's labor force activities. Some of the major questions that. Does anyone in this household have a business or a farm?
Last week, did you do any work for (either) pay (or profit)? If the answer to question 1 is "yes" and the answer to question 2 is "no," the next question is: Last week, did you do any unpaid work in the family business or farm?