Unemployment and Non-Employment: Heterogeneities in Labour Market States

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  • 1 January 2002
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      • Published in RePEc
Abstract
Determining how to distinguish between unemployment and non-participation is important and controversial. The conventional approach employs a priori reasoning together with self-reported current behaviour. This paper employs an evidence-based classification of labour force status using information about the consequences of the behaviour of the nonemployed. We find that marginal attachment—defined as desiring work, although not searching—is a distinct labour market state, lying between those who do not desire work and the unemployed. Furthermore, there are important heterogeneities within these non-employment states. Two subsets of non-participants—both engaged in “waiting”—display behaviour similar to the unemployed.
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