What is owed to those who work, and to those who cannot find work?
Unemployment rises and falls with the seasons of an economy, and in many places it falls hardest on the young. What is work for, and what do we owe those who want it and cannot find it?
The picture
What the numbers show, read from the Data library each time the page opens.
How to read the chart above, and the words it uses (for unemployment).
How to read the data
The figure is the share of people who want work and are looking for it but have none. Those who have stopped looking are not counted, and informal or part-time work counts as work.
Key terms
Labour force
Everyone who has a job or is actively looking for one.
Unemployed
Without work, available to start and looking for it.
Informal work
Paid work outside formal contracts and registration, common in poorer countries.
Who has a stake
Each interest, then readings from the Catholic library and the Classics library that bear on it, oldest first. Choose a group to read.
A job that pays enough to live on, a fair time to find one, and support in between that does not strip them of dignity.
A fair wage, a secure job and fair treatment, alongside a fair share of the work and of its costs.
To take on workers at a cost the business can bear, a fair return for the risk, and the freedom to run the work as they judge best.
A steady income to feed and house those who depend on it, and a place where work gives people a part in the common life.
A first job that teaches a trade, a start on a life of their own, and not being left waiting at the door.
For discussion
What does a society owe people who are willing to work and cannot find it, and what may it fairly ask of them in return?
How should the interest of employers in hiring at a cost they can bear be weighed against the interest of workers in a wage they can live on?
What is owed to the young at the start of working life, and who should carry the cost of giving them a start?
