The unemployed are those individuals who do not currently have a job and who have actively looked for work in the last 4 weeks (International Labour Organisation). Individuals who looked for work in the past beyond 4 weeks but are not looking currently are not counted as unemployed. The employed are individuals who currently have jobs. Thus, employed + unemployed = labour force. People who are not working and are not looking for work are not considered to be in the labour force such as a full-time student, homemaker, or retiree is not in the labour force. In summary, it represents those people in the labour force who are looking for work but who cannot find work.
Measurement of Unemployment It is computed as:
No. of Unemployed Workers
Labour Force x 100%
OR
Labour Force – No. of Employed Workers x 100% Labour Force
