Employment Indicator
The Employment Indicator condenses a broad body of literature familiar to a small group of professionals into a straightforward presentation of an important dimension of life: our jobs. Moreover, the indicator pioneered examination of employment from a holistic perspective in that it pieces together various aspects of work that are normally examined in isolation, such as paid employment, reasons for unemployment, part-time versus full-time employment and workers with alternative work job arrangements. The indicator also pioneered looking at disparities in employment based on the race and gender of the worker, information now available from the official sources such as the US Department of Labor and the US Commerce Department.Employment Indicator
The Employment Indicator condenses a broad body of literature familiar to a small group of professionals into a straightforward presentation of an important dimension of life: our jobs. Moreover, the indicator pioneered examination of employment from a holistic perspective in that it pieces together various aspects of work that are normally examined in isolation, such as paid employment, reasons for unemployment, part-time versus full-time employment and workers with alternative work job arrangements. The indicator also pioneered looking at disparities in employment based on the race and gender of the worker, information now available from the official sources such as the US Department of Labor and the US Commerce Department.
Each month, the US Department of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) releases employment-related data divided between government and private sector, non-farm jobs. The basic information reveals the number and characteristics of people who are employed and unemployed in what is called the ‘civilian, non-institutionalized adult population.’ This includes all adults, aged 16 and over, who are not living in institutions such as penal facilities, mental facilities and homes for the aged. Military personnel is grouped separately from the civilian population under the assumption that all members of the armed services are employed. The civilian, non-institutionalized adult population is divided into two groups: those who are in the labor force and those who are not. Those in the labor force are further subdivided into those who are unemployed and several different categories of employed. The over 20 million jobs in government at state, local and federal agencies are hard to find. The 2012 presidential election debate included absurd claims by many Republican politicians that government does not create jobs (“JOBS: Let’s Get Real!”).
There are a number of problems with these data categorizations.
- The employment category does not differentiate between people who have jobs with benefits and those whose jobs do not include benefits.
- The employment category does not show fully how many people are ‘underemployed,’ that is working at jobs that are below their education and skill level because they are not able to find better jobs.
- The unemployment category now includes references and numbers of discouraged workers, part-timers looking for full time jobs and structurally unemployed youth and minorities. If these were also counted, the official unemployment rate could increase by 10 percentage points or more.
Another problem with traditional measures of unemployment is that there is no accounting for a large percentage of unpaid productive work including caring for elders, the sick, and children in home or volunteer organization settings. Many organizations in the nonprofit, civic sector of our society now call for full recognition of the value of this caring work. Some call for housework and parenting to be paid, through statutory pension benefits or in marriage contracts. Worldwide, the United Nations Human Development Index in 1995 estimated unpaid work by the world’s women at $11 trillion and by men another $5 trillion. This $16 trillion was simply missing from the 1995 World GDP of $24 trillion. Now that global GDP is $60-65 trillion, another global estimate of the value of unpaid work is needed, and our Advisory Board member Dr. Riane Eisler continues research in her Center for Partnership Studies and Caring Economy Campaign. All Information Age metrics should include all the voluntary work of computer technicians who contribute freely in the “open-source” movements, as documented by Don Tapscott in Wikinomics; our Advisory Board member Edgar Cahn in No More Throwaway People; Yochai Benkler, Wealth of Networks and in The Ethical Economy by Adam Arvidsson and Nicolai Peitersen. GDP still omits estimates of unpaid work, a focus of the TV show “The Non-Money Economy” aired on PBS stations in the series “Ethical Markets,” now worldwide at www.films.com and at www.ethicalmarkets.tv.
While the Employment Indicator is based on available official statistics about the labor market, we intend to keep gathering statistics on the overlooked aspects of employment mentioned above. As such data become available, the Employment Indicator will be expanded and updated to reflect the changing picture of work in our society.