Unemployment occurs when a person is available to work and currently seeking work, but the person is without work.^[1] The prevalence of unemployment is usually measured using the unemployment rate, which is defined as the percentage of those in the labor force who are unemployed. The unemployment rate is also used in economic studies and economic indexes such as the United States' Conference Board's Index of Leading Indicators as a measure of the state of the macroeconomics.

from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unemployement 04/23/09

Phoebe Owens