How do you calculate the rate of unemployment?

(unemployed/ labor force)*100=rate of unemployment

where the labor force is anyone 16 years or older, AND noninstutionalized,AND and must be working or seeking work..

How do you calculate the rate of unemployment?rate my professor

i would look it up in the news...i%26#039;ve no idea how to do it on my own but i would think it would be something like:

how many people who are working (in a certain area) divided by those who can (not disabled or collecting social security)

i think it also depends on how many people register at the unemployment agency who are actively seeking work and are not hired

How do you calculate the rate of unemployment?

loan

Go to U.S. Department of Labor website (www.labor.gov, I think). Also Bureau of Labor Statistics (www.bls.gov, I think), which is actually part of Dept. of Labor. Unemployment statistics and their calculation (for which method always changes) are explained there.|||Umm go on the website...the Gove one it helps.|||Since unemployment is considered to be the state where an able-bodied person, available and willing to work for the prevailing wage rate, is unable to find a job, then the unemployment rate would be that total number divided into the total labor force--both those employed and unemployed. Here%26#039;s more on unemployment from Wikipedia:|||in economics, a person who is able and willing to work at prevailing wage rate yet is unable to find a paying job is considered unemployed. The unemployment rate is the number of unemployed workers divided by the total civilian labour force, which includes both the unemployed and those with jobs (all those willing and able to work for pay). In practice, measuring the number of unemployed workers actually seeking work is notoriously difficult. There are several different methods for measuring the number of unemployed workers. Each method has its own biases and the different systems make comparing unemployment statistics between countries, especially those with different systems, difficult.

The graph shows the official unemployment rate (as a percentage of the labour force) in the United States from 1948 to the present (using data supplied by the Bureau of Labor Statistics). The terms unemployment and unemployed are sometimes used to refer to other inputs to production that are not being fully used -- for example, unemployed capital goods.

The U.S. Bureau of Labour Statistics (BLS) provides some definitions which are similar to, but not the same as, those of other countries.

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BLS definitions

The BLS counts employment and unemployment (of those over 16 years of age) using a sample survey of households.[2] In BLS definitions, people are considered employed if they did any work at all for pay or profit during the survey week. This includes not only regular full-time year-round employment but also all part-time and temporary work. Workers are also counted as %26quot;employed%26quot; if they have a job at which they did not work during the survey week because they were:

* On vacation;

* Ill;

* Taking care of some other family or personal obligation (for example, due to child-care problems);

* On maternity or paternity leave;

* Involved in an industrial dispute (strike or lock-out); or

* Prevented from working by bad weather.

Typically, employment and the labour force include only work done for economic gain. Hence, a homemaker is neither part of the labour force nor unemployed. Nor are full-time students nor prisoners considered to be part of the labour force or unemployment. The latter can be important. In 1999, economists Lawrence F. Katz and Alan B. Krueger estimated that increased incarceration lowered measured unemployment in the United States by 0.17 %age points between 1985 and the late 1990s. In particular, as of this writing (2004) 3 % of the US population is incarcerated.

On the other hand, individuals are classified as %26quot;unemployed%26quot; if they do not have a job, have actively looked for work in the prior four weeks, and are currently available for work. The unemployed includes all individuals who were not working for pay but were waiting to be called back to a job from which they had been temporarily laid off.

Finally, it is possible to be neither employed nor unemployed by BLS definitions, i.e., to be outside of the %26quot;labour force.%26quot; These are people who have no job and are not looking for one. Many of these are going to school or are retired. Family responsibilities keep others out of the labour force. Still others have a physical or mental disability which prevents them from participating in labour force activities.

Children, the elderly, and some individuals with disabilities are typically not counted as part of the labour force in and are correspondingly not included in the unemployment statistics. However, some elderly and many disabled individuals are active in the labour market.

In the early stages of an economic boom, both employment and unemployment often rise. This is because people join the labour market (give up studying, start a job hunt, etc.) because of the improving job market, but until they have actually found a position they are counted as unemployed. Similarly, during a recession, the increase in the unemployment rate is moderated by people leaving the labour force.

Note: as of March 1st, 2005 unemployment statistics will be derived from three sources. These sources include the Current Population Survey, a statewide survey of businesses known as the Current Employment Statistics Survey, and state unemployment insurance claims.

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The accuracy of unemployment statistics

The unemployment rate may be different from the impact of the economy on people. First, the unemployment figures indicate how many are not working for pay but seeking employment for pay. It is only indirectly connected with the number of people who are actually not working at all or working without pay. Second, in the United States those who work as little as one hour a week for payment are considered employed, even if they wish to work more. Therefore, critics believe that current methods of measuring unemployment are inaccurate in terms of the impact of unemployment on people as these methods do not take into account:

* Those who have lost their jobs and have become discouraged over time from actively looking for work.

* Those who are self-employed or wish to become self-employed, such as tradesmen or building contractors or IT consultants.

* Those who have retired before the official retirement age but would still like to work.

* Those on disability pensions who, while not possessing full health, still wish to work in occupations suitable for their medical conditions.

* Those who work for payment for as little as one hour per week but would like to work full-time. These people are %26quot;involuntary part-time%26quot; workers.

* Those who are underemployed, e.g., a computer programmer who is working in a retail store until he can find a permanent job.

On the other hand, the measures of unemployment may be %26quot;too high.%26quot; In some countries, the availability of unemployment benefits can inflate statistics since they give an incentive to register as unemployed. Homemakers and other people who do not really seek work may choose to declare themselves unemployed so as to get benefits; people with undeclared paid occupations may try to get unemployment benefits in addition to the money they earn from their work. Conversely, the absence of any tangible benefit for registering as unemployed discourages people from registering.

However, in the United States and several other countries this is not a problem, since unemployment is measured using a sample survey (akin to a Gallup poll). This method is also used by many countries besides the U.S., including Canada, Mexico, Australia, Japan, and all of the countries in the European Economic Community. According to the BLS, a number of Eastern European nations have instituted labour force surveys as well.

The sample survey has its own problems, because the total number of workers in the economy is estimated based on a sample rather than a census. So many economists look to the survey of employers to get a better estimate of the number of jobs created or destroyed.

Due to these deficiencies, many labour market economists prefer to look at a range of economic statistics such as:

* Labour market participation rate (the percentage of people aged between 15 and 64 who are currently employed or searching for employment)

* The total number of full-time jobs in an economy

* The number of people seeking work as a raw number and not a percentage

* The total number of person-hours worked in a month compared to the total number of person-hours people would like to work

Situation in the United States

There are two permanent government projects conducted by the United States Census Bureau (within the United States Department of Commerce) and/or the Bureau of Labor Statistics (within the United States Department of Labor) that gather employment statistics monthly. One is the Current Population Survey (CPS) [3] which surveys 60,000 households: it is used in calculating the unemployment rate. The other is the Current Employment Statistics (CES) [4] which surveys 300,000 employers.

These two sources have different classification criteria, and usually produce differing results. As noted, most economists these days see the CES as a more accurate estimate of the state of the job market. Because the CES only surveys employers, it does not produce an unemployment rate statistic.

Though many people care about the number of unemployed (8.0 million in the U.S. in December 2004), economists typically focus on the unemployment rate (5.0% in November 2005). This corrects for the normal increase in the number of people working for pay or seeking work due to population increases and increases in the paid labour force relative to the population and thus the normal increase in the number of unemployed workers.|||The unemployment rate is determined by the Current Population Survey