Problems of defining and measuring unemployemnt in the contemporary American economy are examined here using data from the official employment survey. The paper finds that only a minority of the unemployed conform to the conventional picture of a worker who has lost one job and is looking f or...

Fluctuations in the equilibrium rate of unemployment can only be understood within a theory of the natural or equilibrium rate. It is not enough to say that unemployment is the difference between supply and demand in the labor market, though of course it always will be. In equilibrium, no...

I consider three views of the labor market. In the first, wages are flexible and employment follows the principle of bilateral efficiency. Workers never lose their jobs because of sticky wages. In the second view, wages are sticky and inefficient layoffs do occur. In the third, wages are also...

Following a recession, the aggregate labor market is slack employment remains below normal and recruiting efforts of employers, as measured by vacancies, are low. A model of matching frictions explains the qualitative responses of the labor market to adverse shocks, but requires implausibly...