Participation, supply and demand

 Participating in the employment market

Who is involved in the job market? (...)  People can be divided into three groups, the first two of which can be described as economically active:

*  The employed, those in paid work

*  The unemployed, those who are looking for paid work but are unable to find it

*  The economically inactive, those neither in paid work nor seeking jobs

Chapter 6 of the new edition (chapter 3 in the 1st edition) of Human Resource Management in a Business Context continues with an analysis of these categories

 Employee supply

Individuals determine how much time they devote to paid work for a variety of reasons. (...) Demographic effects are also an important factor.

Chapter 6 of the new edition (chapter 3 in the 1st edition) of Human Resource Management in a Business Context compares demographic effects in different countries, including Australia, Canada, Germany and the UK

 The future of the job market may lie in mobility, but most of us do not move far: Still tied to Mum's apron strings on HRMGuide.co.uk.

 See an executive summary of a report on the US situation at the Employment Policy Foundation site: The Changing face of the 21st Century Workforce: Trends in Ethnicity,Race, Age, & Gender

  Employee demand

Demand for workers is linked to the economic cycle, increasing in boom times and decreasing in recession. Other factors include the adoption of new technology, productivity improvements and changing skill requirements. Superficially, calculating employment supply and demand seems easy. In practice, a combination of factors make it extremely problematic. In the last decade, for example, commentators have confidently predicted both permanently high levels of unemployment and shortages of labour.

Some illustrations of employment and unemployment details:

Australia

Monthly employment statistics

United Kingdom

UK unemployment

United States

Statement on the Employment Situation

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