The unemployment rate is defined as the percentage of the labor force that is unemployed. The labor force consists of those who are either working or looking for work (Taylor 2001). .
Economists say the rise of the unemployment rate can almost always be contributed to by a recession. Even as the economy rises and jobs are added to the economy the unemployment rate may still rise as well. This is due to the fact that the two numbers are generated from different surveys. The unemployment rate comes from a survey of households, whereas the payrolls data comes from a survey of businesses. Also, that payroll data is subject to dramatic revision. For example, the government's initial reading of growth outside the farm sector in March found 58,000 new jobs, but the number was later revised to a loss (CNN 2002). .
Gerard Jackson has a theory as to why a recession changes the unemployment rate so much. The failure to understand the forces that result in succeeding recessions being accompanied by higher levels of unemployment is due to the acceptance of two economic fallacies: treating money as neutral and capital as homogeneous. If money is neutral then that will only change output and the price level. Hence, changes in money supply will only misdirect production, creating Mali vestments. It also follows that if capital is homogeneous (meaning that all capital goods are perfect substitutes for each other) bottlenecks cannot occur and capital cannot be lost through malinvestents (Jackson 2001). .
At the heart of the unemployment problem is capitalism- it cannot do away with unemployment because it is a crisis-ridden system. Huge economic crises began in Britain in 1825 and followed on average every ten years. The cycle has continued in the twentieth century, marked by the extremely severe crisis in the 1930's, although the periodicity of the recessions has varied since then .