Section 1 Labor Market Trends
Preview
Objectives
After studying this section you will be able to:
- Describe how trends in the labor force are tracked.
- Analyze past and present occupational trends.
- Summarize how the U.S. labor force is changing.
- Identify and explain trends in the wages and benefits paid to U.S. workers.
Section Focus
The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) tracks trends in the labor market. These trends include the movement toward a service economy, the hiring of more college graduates, women, and temporary employees, an overall decline in real wages, and rising costs for employee benefits.
Key Terms
- labor force
- learning effect
- screening effect
- contingent employment
What are the hottest jobs for the new millennium? If you guessed computer-related occupations, you are right. The number of computer engineers and computer support specialists is expected to nearly double between 2000 and 2010 despite an economic slowdown. (See “Fastest-Growing Occupations” in the Economic Atlas and Databank on page 537 for more information on the ten fastest-growing occupations.)
The labor force is transforming before our eyes. Soaring growth in computer-related jobs is just one of the ways in which the job market is changing.
Tracking the Labor Force
How do we know the direction of changes in the job market? Each month, the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) of the United States Department of Labor surveys households to assemble information on the labor force. Economists define the labor force as all nonmilitary people who are employed or unemployed.
Employment
Economists consider people to be employed if they are 16 years or older and meet at least one of the following requirements:
- they worked at least one hour for pay within the past week;
- they worked 15 or more hours without pay in a family business, such as a farm;
- they held jobs but did not work due to illnesses, vacations, labor disputes, or bad weather.
Unemployment
People who do not meet these criteria are counted as unemployed if they are either temporarily without work or are not working but have looked for jobs within the last 4 weeks. So to be counted as unemployed, a person either must have work lined up for the future, or must be actively searching for a new job.
The labor force is made up of people with jobs and those who are looking for jobs or are waiting to report to work. Some examples of people outside the labor force are full-time students, parents who stay at home to raise children, and retirees. These people are not considered unemployed, and thus are not counted in employment statistics.
The labor force includes many small business owners.
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