When the US Census conducts the monthly Current Population Survey on behalf of the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), it asks households more than 200 questions about their employment status. One of those questions is “Do you currently want a job, either full or part time?”
As the BLS explains it: “People who want a job now are a subset of those not in the labor force.” The labor force is made up of (1) persons who are employed and (2) persons who are not employed but who had actively looked for employment in the four weeks prior to being asked about it.
Let’s put these concepts in the context of data available in FRED.
Our FRED graph above shows the percentage of persons who want a job out of the total pool of those who aren’t in the labor force. The blue line represents men, and the green line represents women.
The data, available since 1994, show very similar proportions for men and women. The rates ebb and flow with the business cycle, noticeably increasing during recessions (shaded areas in the graph). Over the past decade, an average of 6.6% of men and 5.1% of women who weren’t in the labor force would have liked to have gotten a job. Aside from the large spikes during the COVID-19 pandemic, these values have been fairly constant, suggesting the size of the pool of people interested in joining the labor market is relatively stable.
How this graph was created: Search FRED for and select “Not in Labor Force – Want a Job Now, Men.” Click on “Edit Graph” and use the “Edit Line” tab to customize the data by searching for “Not in Labor Force, Men.” Don’t forget to click on “Add.” Next, type in the formula (a/b)*100 and click on “Apply Formula.” Next, use the “Add Line” tab to search for and add “Not in Labor Force – Want a Job Now, Women.” Lastly, customize those data by adding “Not in Labor Force, Women” and applying the formula described earlier.
Suggested by Diego Mendez-Carbajo.
