Labor Market & Economic History - Vocabulary Flashcards

Vocabulary flashcards covering key terms and concepts from the notes on labor markets, demographics, and economic history.

Labor force

Total of employed and unemployed people who are actively seeking work; excludes unpaid/volunteer work (except 15+ hours in a family business).

Employed

People who work for pay or participate in 15+ hours of unpaid work in a family business.

Unemployed

People not currently working but actively looking for a job.

Out of the labor force

Not working and not seeking work (e.g., retired, students, discouraged).

Unemployment rate

Unemployed divided by the labor force.

Underemployment

Working below one’s skill level or involuntarily part-time.

Labor force participation rate

Labor force divided by the population age 16+ (16 years and over).

Marginally attached workers

Individuals not counted as unemployed because they haven’t looked for work in the last 4 weeks, but still part of the broader labor market.

Discouraged workers

Marginally attached workers who have given up seeking work; not counted in unemployment stats.

Labor demand

Firms’ demand for workers; interacts with labor supply to determine wages.

Labor supply

Workers’ supply of labor; shifts with policy, education, tastes, and immigration.

Wage determination

The process by which wages are set through the interaction of labor demand and supply.

Shifts in labor supply

Changes in the willingness/ability of workers to work at given wages due to welfare reform, immigration policy, education, or tastes.

Immigration crackdown

Policy tightening that reduces labor supply, raises wages for remaining workers, and can lower total employment.

Anti-discrimination policy

Policies that shift labor between markets or occupations by reducing discrimination (e.g., clerical to managerial).

Household composition

Changes in household types since the 1960s, with fewer married-with-kids households and more singles/non-traditional arrangements.

Married-with-kids households

The share of 25–49-year-olds who are married with children; Pew data show a decline from 67% in 1970 to 37% in 2021.

Fertility rate decline

Fertility has fallen from about 7–8 children per woman around 1900 to about 1.6 today.

Current Population Survey (CPS)

Monthly survey of about 64,000 households used as the basis for the US jobs report.

COVID-19 unemployment spike

Unemployment rose from roughly 3.5% to nearly 15% during the pandemic, then recovered.