Employment Statistics Provide a Basis for Monitoring Social Change

Employment statistics, especially the unemployment rate and the number of persons employed, are useful measures of economic well-being and satisfy most definitions of social indicators. The unemployment rate, that proportion of the labor force that is unemployed, is commonly used as an indicator of labor force utilization, economic hardship, and social stress. However, the unemployment rate measures only specific things and does not answer questions about employment opportunities and employment experiences.