文档介绍：CHAPTER 07
LABOUR MARKETS, UNEMPLOYMENT, AND INFLATION
Slide 1
What You Will Learn in this Chapter:
The meaning of the natural rate of unemployment, and why it isn’t zero
Why cyclical unemployment changes over the business cycle
How factors such as a minimum wage and efficiency wages can lead to structural unemployment
The reasons that unemployment can be higher or lower than the natural rate for extended periods
The existence of a short-run trade-off between unemployment and inflation, called the short-run Phillips curve, that disappears in the long run
Why the NAIRU, the non-accelerating inflation rate of unemployment, is an important measure for policy-making
2
The Nature of Unemployment
The unemployment rate is the ratio of the number of people unemployed to the total number of people in the labor force who are either currently working or looking for jobs
If everyone who wanted a job had one, the unemployment rate would be 0%
But Canadian public policy analysts consider the economy to be at “full employment” when the rate of unemployment is well above 0%
The unemployment rate that exists at the level of full employment is referred to as the natural rate of unemployment
3
The Nature of Unemployment
The natural rate of unemployment is explained by three types of unemployment:
Frictional unemployment is unemployment due to the time workers spend in job search
Structural unemployment is unemployment that results when there are more people seeking jobs in a labour market than there are jobs available at the current wage
Seasonal unemployment is the fluctuation in unemployment over the course of the year due to the seasons or the weather
4
Average Duration of Unemployment, 2000
5
The Effect of a Minimum Wage on the Labour Market
6
Causes of Structural Unemployment
Minimum wages - a government-mandated floor on the price of labour
Unions - by bargaining for all of a firm’s workers collectively (collective bargaining), unions can often win higher wages