The Labor Market Basic Concepts The unemployment rate

The Labor Market: Basic Concepts • The unemployment rate is the ratio of the number of people unemployed to the total number of people in the labor force. • Frictional unemployment is the portion of unemployment that is due to the normal working of the labor market; used to denote short-run job/skill matching problems. © 2002 Prentice Hall Business Publishing Principles of Economics, 6/e Karl Case, Ray Fair

The Labor Market: Basic Concepts • Structural unemployment is the portion of unemployment that is due to changes in the structure of the economy that result in a significant loss of jobs in certain industries. • Cyclical unemployment is the increase in unemployment that occurs during recessions and depressions. Employment tends to fall when aggregate output falls and rise when aggregate output rises. © 2002 Prentice Hall Business Publishing Principles of Economics, 6/e Karl Case, Ray Fair

The Classical View of the Labor Market • The view of classical economists was that if the quantity of labor demanded and the quantity of labor supplied are brought into equilibrium by rising and falling wage rates, there should be no persistent unemployment above the frictional and structural amount. © 2002 Prentice Hall Business Publishing Principles of Economics, 6/e Karl Case, Ray Fair

The Classical View of the Labor Market • The labor supply curve illustrates the amount of labor that households want to supply at the particular wage rate. • The labor demand curve illustrates the amount of labor that firms want to employ at the particular wage rate. © 2002 Prentice Hall Business Publishing Principles of Economics, 6/e Karl Case, Ray Fair

The Classical View of the Labor Market • Classical economists believe that the labor market always clears. • If labor demand decreases, the equilibrium wage will fall. Everyone who wants a job at W* will have one. There is always full employment in this sense. © 2002 Prentice Hall Business Publishing Principles of Economics, 6/e Karl Case, Ray Fair

The Classical Labor Market and the Aggregate Supply Curve • The classical idea that wages adjust to clear the labor market is consistent with the view that wages respond quickly to price changes. • This means that the AS curve is vertical. Therefore, monetary and fiscal policy cannot affect the level of output and employment in the economy. © 2002 Prentice Hall Business Publishing Principles of Economics, 6/e Karl Case, Ray Fair

The Unemployment Rate and the Classical View • The unemployment rate as measured by the government is not necessarily an accurate indicator of whether the labor market is working properly. • The unemployment rate may sometimes seem high even though the labor market is working well. • The fact that people are willing to work at a wage higher than the current wage does not mean that the labor market is not working. © 2002 Prentice Hall Business Publishing Principles of Economics, 6/e Karl Case, Ray Fair

Explaining the Existence of Unemployment • The term sticky wages refers to the downward rigidity of wages as an explanation for the existence of unemployment. • If wages “stick” at W 0 rather than fall to the new equilibrium wage of W* following a shift of demand, the result will be unemployment equal to L 0 – L 1. © 2002 Prentice Hall Business Publishing Principles of Economics, 6/e Karl Case, Ray Fair

Explaining the Existence of Unemployment • One explanation for downwardly sticky wages is that firms enter into social, or implicit, contracts. These contracts are unspoken agreements between workers and firms that firms will not cut wages. © 2002 Prentice Hall Business Publishing Principles of Economics, 6/e Karl Case, Ray Fair

Explaining the Existence of Unemployment • The relative-wage explanation of unemployment holds that workers are concerned about their wages relative to the wages of other workers in other firms and industries. They may be unwilling to accept wage cuts unless they know other workers are receiving similar cuts. © 2002 Prentice Hall Business Publishing Principles of Economics, 6/e Karl Case, Ray Fair

Explaining the Existence of Unemployment • Explicit contracts are employment contracts that stipulate workers’ wages, usually for a period of one to three years. Wages set in this way do not fluctuate with economic conditions. • Cost of living adjustments (COLAs) are contract provisions that tie wages to changes in the cost of living. The greater the inflation rate, the more wages are raised. © 2002 Prentice Hall Business Publishing Principles of Economics, 6/e Karl Case, Ray Fair

Explaining the Existence of Unemployment • The efficiency wage theory is an explanation for unemployment that holds that the productivity of workers increases with the wage rate. If this is so, firms may have an incentive to pay wages above the marketclearing rate. © 2002 Prentice Hall Business Publishing Principles of Economics, 6/e Karl Case, Ray Fair

Explaining the Existence of Unemployment • If firms have imperfect information, they may simply set wages wrong— wages that do not clear the labor market. • Minimum wage laws set a floor for wage rates, and explain at least a fraction of unemployment. © 2002 Prentice Hall Business Publishing Principles of Economics, 6/e Karl Case, Ray Fair

The Short-Run Relationship Between the Unemployment Rate and Inflation • The unemployment rate (U) and aggregate output (income) (Y) are negatively related. • The relationship between Y and the price level (P) is positive, as depicted by the AS curve. • The relationship between U and P is negative. As U declines in response to the economy moving closer and closer to capacity output, the overall price level rises more and more. © 2002 Prentice Hall Business Publishing Principles of Economics, 6/e Karl Case, Ray Fair

The Phillips Curve • The Phillips curve shows the relationship between the inflation rate and the unemployment rate. • This macroeconomic relationship has been widely studied. • It shows that there is a trade-off between inflation and unemployment. To lower the inflation rate, we must accept a higher unemployment rate. © 2002 Prentice Hall Business Publishing Principles of Economics, 6/e Karl Case, Ray Fair

The Phillips Curve: A Historical Perspective • In the 1960 s and early 1970 s, inflation appeared to respond in a fairly predictable way to changes in the unemployment rate. © 2002 Prentice Hall Business Publishing Principles of Economics, 6/e Karl Case, Ray Fair

The Phillips Curve: A Historical Perspective • But in the 1970 s and 1980 s, the Phillips Curve broke down. • The points on this figure show no particular relationship between inflation and unemployment. © 2002 Prentice Hall Business Publishing Principles of Economics, 6/e Karl Case, Ray Fair

Aggregate Supply and Aggregate Demand Analysis and the Phillips Curve • When AS shifts with no shifts in AD, there is a negative relationship between P and Y. © 2002 Prentice Hall Business Publishing • When AD shifts with no shifts in AS, there is a positive relationship between P and Y. Principles of Economics, 6/e Karl Case, Ray Fair

Aggregate Supply and Aggregate Demand Analysis and the Phillips Curve • If both AD and AS are shifting, there is no systematic relationship between P and Y and thus no systematic relationship between the unemployment rate and the inflation rate. © 2002 Prentice Hall Business Publishing Principles of Economics, 6/e Karl Case, Ray Fair

The Role of Import Prices • The AS curve shifts when input prices change, and input prices are affected by the price of imports. There were no large shifts in the AS curve in the 1960 s due to changes in the price of imports. • The price of imports increased considerably in the 1970 s. This led to large shifts in the AS curve during the decade. © 2002 Prentice Hall Business Publishing Principles of Economics, 6/e Karl Case, Ray Fair

The Role of Import Prices • The price of imports changed very little in the 1960 s and early 1970 s. It increased substantially in 1974 and again in 1979– 1980. Since 1981, the price of imports has changed very little. © 2002 Prentice Hall Business Publishing Principles of Economics, 6/e Karl Case, Ray Fair

Expectations and the Phillips Curve • Expectations are self-fulfilling. Wage inflation is affected by expectations of future price inflation. Price expectations that affect wage contracts eventually affect prices themselves. • Inflationary expectations shift the Phillips curve to the right. • Inflationary expectations were stable in the 1950 s and 1960 s, but increased in the 1970 s. © 2002 Prentice Hall Business Publishing Principles of Economics, 6/e Karl Case, Ray Fair

The Long-Run AS curve, Potential GDP, and the Natural Rate of Unemployment • When output is pushed above potential GDP (Y 0), there is upward pressure on costs. Rising costs push the short-run AS curve to the left. The quantity supplied will end up back at Y 0. • If the AS curve is vertical in the long run, so is the Phillips Curve. © 2002 Prentice Hall Business Publishing Principles of Economics, 6/e Karl Case, Ray Fair

The Long-Run AS curve, Potential GDP, and the Natural Rate of Unemployment • In the long run, the Phillips Curve corresponds to the natural rate of unemployment. • The natural rate of unemployment (U*) is the unemployment rate that is consistent with the notion of a fixed long-run output at potential GDP. © 2002 Prentice Hall Business Publishing Principles of Economics, 6/e Karl Case, Ray Fair

The NAIRU—The Nonaccelerating Inflation Rate of Unemployment • Many economists believe the relationship between the change in the inflation rate and the unemployment rate is as depicted by the PP curve in this figure. • Only when the unemployment rate is equal to the NAIRU is the price level changing at a constant rate (no change in the inflation rate). © 2002 Prentice Hall Business Publishing Principles of Economics, 6/e Karl Case, Ray Fair

The NAIRU—The Nonaccelerating Inflation Rate of Unemployment • To the left of the NAIRU the price level is accelerating (positive changes in the inflation rate). • To the right of the NAIRU the price level is decelerating (negative changes in the inflation rate). © 2002 Prentice Hall Business Publishing Principles of Economics, 6/e Karl Case, Ray Fair

The NAIRU—The Nonaccelerating Inflation Rate of Unemployment • A favorable shift of the PP curve is to the left because the PP curve crosses zero at a lower unemployment rate. • A possible recent source of favorable shifts is increased foreign competition, which may have kept both wage costs and other input costs down. © 2002 Prentice Hall Business Publishing Principles of Economics, 6/e Karl Case, Ray Fair

Inflation and Unemployment Around the World, 1997 to 2000 UNEMPLOYMENT RATE INFLATION RATE 1997 2000 Canada 9. 5 6. 6 -0. 3 3. 6 Australia 8. 8 6. 7 0. 7 3. 6 12. 5 9. 8 1. 4 2. 5 5. 8 5. 7 4. 2 6. 4 12. 2 10. 7 1. 5 2. 9 United States 4. 8 4. 1 1. 3 4. 6 Netherlands 5. 8 2. 9 3. 6 6. 2 Sweden 7. 8 4. 1 -0. 1 1. 4 Germany 11. 4 9. 1 1. 7 1. 5 3. 5 4. 6 5. 4 0. 8 France United Kingdom Italy Japan Sources: “Economic Indicators, ” The Economist, July 5 – 11, 1997; July 8 – 14, 2000. Reprinted by permission. © 2002 Prentice Hall Business Publishing Principles of Economics, 6/e Karl Case, Ray Fair