Question: How Is Employment Defined?
Answer: Each month the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) surveys 160,000 non-farm businesses and agencies on their employment, wages, and hours worked. These businesses employ over 400,000 workers. The BLS reports on which industries are growing and shrinking, whether American workers are working longer hours, and how fast salaries are increasing. The BLS also reports on workers' age, sex, race/ethnicity.
Employment figures include part-time workers. In the first stages of an economic slow-down, the number of workers stays the same, but the percentage of part-time workers increases as people cannot find enough full-time jobs. About mid-way during the slowdown, the total number of workers often decreases as even part-time jobs become unavailable.
Conversely, when the economy starts to pick up again, the first workers hired are part-time employees. That is because businesses are very hesitant to add full-time salaried employees until they know that the economy will sustain continued demand for their products and services. Once full-time employment increases, then you know the economic recovery is well underway.
