Question

The BLS surveys and classifies people as employed, unemployed, working age, in the labor force...

The definitions it uses distorts the real employment picture. After studying the survey method and definitions of the categories, give us your opinion.

Is this method incorrect but sufficient given any alternative? Is this method so flawed as to be irrelevant? What would you change and why?

Answer 1

Unemployment is reported and measured monthly by the Bureau of Labor Statistics of the U.S. BLS provides a reports on the creation of number of jobs created. Ths report is generated from the establishment payroll survey that is based on a survey of about 140,000 government and businesses agencies throughout the nation. It provides an estimation on the employment with the following criteria: all the workers, average weekly hours worked, and average hourly, weekly, and earnings for the overtime. But the main criticism of payroll survey is that it does not include the self-employed. Moreover also fails to make a distinction between new and minimum wage, temporary or part time jobs and full time employment with "decent" pay.

To know a clear picture of unemployment, it is vital to have a consideration not only the number and proportion of underemployed workers and discouraged workers, however also include the proportion and number of involuntary part-time workers (i.e. employees who seek full-time work however works only for the part-time work). In consideration of above drawbacks I consider this method to be flawed as to be irrelevant

I would want to consider the discouraged workers as part of the active labor force. Since 2008 the numbers of discouraged workers have changed by spiking up to 2.8 million and then falling nearly 2.4 million more recently. The exclusion of them negatively impacts the basic unemployment rate. Because the discouraged workers are not considered in any unemployment measure, thus these numbers do not accurately total those who are not employed. Thus to depict a true picture number and proportion of underemployed workers and discouraged workers must be included. Moreover these surveys should be based on clear yardsticks with no complications