Economics focus

摘要

A developed economies emerged from their last deep recession in the early 1990s, there was high anxiety about high unemployment. Thus in 1994 the OECD set out a programme of labour-market reforms through which its member governments might cut the jobless count. A decade on, rich economies are recovering from another slowdown and unemployment is on the rise once again. On September 17th, in its annual Employment Outlook, the OECD issued a new manifesto that reflects the anxieties of western governments about jobs. But the aim this time is not just to reduce unemployment but to raise employment. Eh? What's the difference? Plenty, in fact. To be counted as unemployed, people usually have to be part of the labour force: they must be available to work and actively looking for a job. But there are many other people of working age―housewives, students, lone parents, disabled people and early retirees―who neither have work nor seek it. These are termed the "economically inactive". Policies to cut unemployment aim to lower it as a share of the labour force. Policies to raise employment aim to raise the proportion of the whole working-age population with jobs, not just by getting the unemployed into work but also by mobilising the economically inactive.