Early each month, the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) releases figures on employment and unemployment in the United States. The headline number is the unemployment rate, and it’s a closely watched indicator for economists, investors, and policy makers.
There are different ways to measure joblessness, though the official statistic known as U-3 measures people who are unemployed and actively looking for work. Other measures, such as U-4 and U-5, include long-term unemployed and discouraged workers who have stopped looking for jobs. These complications make it difficult to compare unemployment rates across time or between countries.
In addition to unemployment, the BLS also tracks underemployment. This statistic is more complicated because it includes both involuntary part-time workers who want full-time jobs and marginally attached workers, who are involuntarily working fewer hours than they would like but haven’t given up their search for work. Underemployment can be a useful complement to the unemployment rate because it gives a more comprehensive picture of labor market underutilization.
While a low unemployment rate is a good thing, it doesn’t automatically translate into a well-off society. In fact, the world’s highest and lowest unemployment rates are very different, even among the largest economies. This article explores those disparities and highlights a few surprising facts about the global unemployment situation.