You may be wondering what exactly is labor immobility?

Defining Labor Immobility: The mobility of labor refers to the ability of workers to change from one job to another both geographically and occupationally.

What is the labor force participation rate?

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics defines the Labor force participation rate as: “The labor force as a percent of the civilian non-institutional population.” In other words, the percentage of the total population that is working. The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) defines the employment rate as the employment-to-population ratio. This is a statistical ratio that measures the proportion of the country’s working-age population (ages 15 to 64 in most OECD countries) that is employed.

In the US labor market, around 29 million people are engaged in producing a wide range of goods and services. However, about 1.5 million among them are unemployed, indicating that the labor market is not currently operating at peak efficiency.

Some of the unemployed people may be simply changing jobs and thus they are out of work for just a short period of time. After all, an economy is dynamic and specialized. So we ought to expect some unemployment since jobs are continuously being created, but at the same time, some are also no longer needed. The typical example is that of a “buggy whip” maker. There is no need for [Read more…] about Labor Immobility and the Labor Participation Rate