Monday, November 09, 2009

Lazy fare

Financial Times:

Unemployment in management and professional occupations is less than 5 per cent, about a third of the level in production jobs and a quarter of that in the construction sector. Those disparities, as well as record levels of long-term unemployment, leave scope for structural hangovers in the labour market even as a cyclical rebound takes hold. After all, the new world is familiar to some. The broadest measure of US unemployment, including those wanting work but not searching recently and those forced to work part-time, passed the 10 per cent mark 16 months ago.

The "broadest measure" of US unemployment is flawed, however, insofar as it accounts for popular, not political, preferences. For this reason, economists reject it in favor of a purely scientific approach.

No comments: