Employment / Unemployment Definitions

Not in the labor force – StatCan

Here is the definition for Not in the labour force: Persons who were neither employed nor unemployed during the reference period. This includes persons who, during the reference period, were either unable to work or unavailable for work. It also includes persons who were without work and who had neither looked for work in the past four weeks nor had a job to start within four weeks of the reference period.

Extracted from our Guide: http://www5.statcan.gc.ca/olc-cel/olc.action?lang=en&ObjId=71-543-G&ObjType=2

Feel free to contact us directly should you have any questions.

Labour Statistics: Technical Papers (75-005-M) – Measuring Employment and Unemployment in Canada and the United States – A comparison, 2015

http://www5.statcan.gc.ca/olc-cel/olc.action?lang=en&ObjId=75-005-M2015002&ObjType=46

Labor force – US (BLS)

1) Discouraged workers (Current Population Survey) 
Persons not in the labor force who want and are available for a job and who have looked for work sometime in the past 12 months (or since the end of their last job if they held one within the past 12 months), but who are not currently looking because they believe there are no jobs available or there are none for which they would qualify.

2) Marginally attached workers (Current Population Survey) 
Persons not in the labor force who want and are available for work, and who have looked for a job sometime in the prior 12 months (or since the end of their last job if they held one within the past 12 months), but were not counted as unemployed because they had not searched for work in the 4 weeks preceding the survey. Discouraged workers are a subset of the marginally attached. (See Discouraged workers.)

3) Labor force (Current Population Survey) 
The labor force includes all persons classified as employed or unemployed in accordance with the definitions contained in this glossary.

4) Employed persons (Current Population Survey) 
Persons 16 years and over in the civilian noninstitutional population who, during the reference week, (a) did any work at all (at least 1 hour) as paid employees; worked in their own business, profession, or on their own farm, or worked 15 hours or more as unpaid workers in an enterprise operated by a member of the family; and (b) all those who were not working but who had jobs or businesses from which they were temporarily absent because of vacation, illness, bad weather, childcare problems, maternity or paternity leave, labor-management dispute, job training, or other family or personal reasons, whether or not they were paid for the time off or were seeking other jobs. Each employed person is counted only once, even if he or she holds more than one job. Excluded are persons whose only activity consisted of work around their own house (painting, repairing, or own home housework) or volunteer work for religious, charitable, and other organizations.

5) Employed persons (American Time Use Survey) 
Same as definition for Employed persons (Current Population Survey), EXCEPT that in the American Time Use Survey, the definition includes persons 15 years and over and the reference period is the last 7 days prior to the American Time Use Survey interview.

6) Unemployed persons (Current Population Survey) 
Persons aged 16 years and older who had no employment during the reference week, were available for work, except for temporary illness, and had made specific efforts to find employment sometime during the 4-week period ending with the reference week. Persons who were waiting to be recalled to a job from which they had been laid off need not have been looking for work to be classified as unemployed.

7) Not in the labor force (Current Population Survey) 
Includes persons aged 16 years and older in the civilian noninstitutional population who are neither employed nor unemployed in accordance with the definitions contained in this glossary. Information is collected on their desire for and availability for work, job search activity in the prior year, and reasons for not currently searching. (See Marginally attached workers.)

8) Cost-of-living index 
A cost-of-living index measures differences in the price of goods and services, and allows for substitutions to other items as prices change. A consumer price index measures a price change for a constant market basket of goods and services from one period to the next within the same city (or in the Nation). The CPIs are not true cost-of-living indexes and should not be used for place-to-place comparisons.