Understanding Employment (CIE IGCSE Economics)

• Key terms to understand are employment, labour force, unemployment, & full employment
   

1. Employment: refers to the economic use of labour as a factor of production
   
   
2. Unemployment: Someone is considered to be unemployed if they are not working but actively seeking work
    
3. Labour force: A country's population is divided into the labour force - & non labour force
   • The labour force consists of all workers actively working PLUS the unemployed (who are seeking work)
   • The non labour force includes all those not seeking work e.g. stay at home parents, pensioners, school children (these people are economically inactive)
     
     
4. Full employment: describes the ideal situation when everyone in the economy who is willing & able to work has a job

• Many economies are experiencing changing patterns of employment within their workforce & there are numerous reasons for this
   

Causes of Changing Employment Patterns

Structure of the Economy	Proportion of Women Employed	Formal & Informal Work
As Economies develop over time, they tend to progress through the different sectors (primary, secondary & tertiary) resulting in changes to the employment pattern E.g. More manufacturing jobs in the secondary sector attract workers who had previously worked in the primary sector	Changing social attitudes have increased the number of women entering the workforce The proportion of women in the workforce still varies significantly between different economies e.g. Sweden has a much higher proportion of women in the workforce than India or Saudi Arabia	Workers doing informal work are not included in employment statistics Informal employment is much higher in less developed economies & tends to decrease as an economy develops
Proportion of Workers in the Public & Private Sector	Part-time & full-time	Work from home
Between the Second World War & the late 1980's, the number of public sector employees was large in many economies With an increase in privatisation  & a move towards more market based economies, the percentage of employees in public sector work has decreased in many countries	Working part-time provides more flexibility to workers & in recent years, there has been an increase in the number of part-time workers In some economies workers may not be able to find full-time work & may be working 2 or 3 part-time jobs to pay the bills	Covid 19 caused many people to think about their pattern of work. Many workers are reluctant to return to a commuting lifestyle & wherever possible, are continuing to work from home