Labour Force and Unemployment

Good morning Ms. Teetaert and fellow classmates, the week before our spring break we discussed the topic of the labour force and it's relation to unemployment. We learned about the labour force survey and things such as which categories people fall into as they are employed and unemployed. The labour force survey provides a monthly measure of the number of people who are unemployed in Canada and has a formula to go along with it. The survey excludes residents of the three territories, people living on Indian reserves, inmates of institutions and full time members of the armed forces. It includes each member of a selected household who is 16 years and older during a particular reference week. The formula that goes along with the survey calculates the participation rate. The participation rate is the percentage of the population that is employed or is actively seeking employment. It is calculated as such; Participation Rate = Labour Force
                                                                Population (16+)
Factors that influence participation rate are general economic conditions, an aging population and early retirements, subsidized daycare, changes in family size and income and increased educational opportunities. For people not in the labour force there are different categories they can be placed into, two of these are discouraged workers and out of the labour force. To be a discouraged worker you would have to be a person who would like to have a job but have not made an effort to find one . To be out of the labour force you would have to be a person who has worked previously but is not looking for a job currently. The topic closely related to the labour force is unemployment and the formula for this is; Unemployment Rate = Unemployed Workers x100%
                                                                    Total Labour Force      

Upon further research it's evident that the concern of unemployment in the labour force is very alive in recent years. As the ages of employed people increase the gap between genders also increase, it shows that more men are employed than women. Nearly five years after the end of the 2008-2009 recession, Canada's unemployment rate has remained fixed at 7.2% (December 2013), a level first reached mid-2011. But rather than a static group of individuals, large numbers of workers flow in and out of unemployment each month. Recessions affect these flows in various ways, for example fewer people quit their job or decide to enter the labour market when the job market looks dismal. Following a recession, there is usually an increase in the number of workers that are unemployed for extended periods of time.



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GHZUkomO7lI

Work Cited
Yussuff, Hassan. "Underemployment is Canada's Real Labour Market Challenge." Canadian Labour Congress. 7 Apr 2015. http://www.canadianlabour.ca/news-room/publications/underemployment-canadas-real-labour-market-challenge