This article argues in favor of drawing a distinction between the concepts of labor rationing and unemployment. Labor rationing refers to the occurrence of excess supply in a given labor market and unemployment to the job searching activity. The former, it will be argued, is a necessary yet...

In this response to Mark Hayes's criticism of his article, 'Lucas on involuntary unemployment', the author insists on the need to draw a distinction between labour rationing (a market outcome) and unemployment (the activity of job seeking). Economic theory is mainly concerned with the former....