A Mountain of Unemployment

Sometimes it's useful to look at something in a different way -- maybe you'll shake loose a new idea.

The picture below breaks the unemployment rate down into three flows into joblessness:

Employment to unemployment: lose your job, start looking for a new one;

Out of the labor force to unemployment: remember, you're only counted among the unemployed if you're actively looking for work. So this category counts folks who formally gave up looking but are now trying again, as well as new entrants;

Unemployment to unemployment: not really a flow -- just means you're stuck there.

Out of the labor force to unemployment: remember, you're only counted among the unemployed if you're actively looking for work. So this category counts folks who formally gave up looking but are now trying again, as well as new entrants;