| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | A country's 'labor force' may be envisioned as the smallest of three circles defining the relationship between total population, the population of productive age, and the active labor force. | | |  | | | The largest circle represents the 'total population' of a country.
The middle circle represents the country's 'productive manpower', defined as the population of productive age or as the total population excluding the very young and the very old.
It is rather difficult to differentiate between the productive and unproductive population, as the normal retirement age varies from 60 - 69 years in different countries. Also, in many countries young children, under 15 years of age, are engaged in the labor market.
Among the population of productive age are people who are not currently employed or actively seeking employment, such as housewives, students, retired workers, and handicapped people. These people do not usually show up in labor market statistics, but they are part of the potential labor force.
The remainder of the country's productive manpower is comprised of people who are available and/or seeking employment and those who are currently employed.
The smallest circle represents the 'active workforce', or the population currently engaged in the process of production. (Abdel Hamid, Aly. 1994) | | | | | | | | | In accordance with the 13th International Conference of Labor Statisticians in October 1982, the economically active comprises all persons of either sex, who furnish the supply of labor for the production of economic goods and services as defined by the UN system of national accounts. These include "the production and processing of primary products", whether for the market, for barter, or for own consumption. | | | | | | | | | 'Growth in the labor force' is determined by the overall population growth rate, the changing age composition of the population, and the change in age-specific participation rates due to changes in school enrollment, retirement age, and housewives who stop working after marriage. | | | | | | Employment | | | 'An employed person' is a person who has to be "at work" for at least one hour during the reference period or is formally attached to a job, as a paid employee, a self employed, an employer or an unpaid family worker. | | | | | | | | | 'Unemployment' is a controversial concept. Labor economists typically define as 'unemployed' those labor force participants who want to work and who did not work, over some reference period (e.g. one week, one month). The search for work is not included in the market force definition of unemployment. |
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