IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/spr/soinre/v175y2024i2d10.1007_s11205-024-03330-x.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Measuring Employment and Unemployment from a Fuzzy Perspective. A Comparative Analysis Across European Countries

Author

Listed:
  • Bruno Cheli

    (University of Pisa)

  • Alessandra Coli

    (University of Pisa)

  • Andrea Regoli

    (University of Naples Parthenope)

Abstract

According to the standards set by the International Labour Office, people of working age who have performed some remunerated work during a specified short reference period are classified as employed, regardless of how many hours they have worked, while those who have not been able to work at all (despite wanting to) are classified as unemployed. As observed by many experts in the field, this rigid division between employed and unemployed can conceal labour markets with deeply different characteristics. In particular, the average number of hours worked and, more importantly, their distribution across employees may vary significantly across countries. The aim of this paper is to define fuzzy indicators of employment and unemployment by using the available information on the number of hours worked and the satisfaction or dissatisfaction of workers with this. In this approach, each person in the labour force is assigned a degree of employment between 0 and 1, where 0 means full non-membership in the fuzzy set of employed (and full membership in the fuzzy set of unemployed) and 1 means full membership in the fuzzy set of employed. To show the potentiality of the proposed method, we apply fuzzy measures to Labour Force Survey data from 29 European countries and compare the results with the official employment and unemployment statistics published by Eurostat.

Suggested Citation

  • Bruno Cheli & Alessandra Coli & Andrea Regoli, 2024. "Measuring Employment and Unemployment from a Fuzzy Perspective. A Comparative Analysis Across European Countries," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 175(2), pages 467-486, November.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:soinre:v:175:y:2024:i:2:d:10.1007_s11205-024-03330-x
    DOI: 10.1007/s11205-024-03330-x
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s11205-024-03330-x
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s11205-024-03330-x?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. David N. F. Bell & David G. Blanchflower, 2021. "Underemployment in the United States and Europe," ILR Review, Cornell University, ILR School, vol. 74(1), pages 56-94, January.
    2. Andrea Brandolini & Eliana Viviano, 2016. "Behind and beyond the (head count) employment rate," Journal of the Royal Statistical Society Series A, Royal Statistical Society, vol. 179(3), pages 657-681, June.
    3. David Gálvez Ruiz & José Luis Pino Mejías, 2016. "Dealing with Imprecision in Performance Evaluation Processes Using Indicators: A Fuzzy Distance-Based Approach," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 129(1), pages 403-423, October.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Meilian Zhang & Ting Yin & Emiko Usui & Takashi Oshio & Yi Zhang, 2024. "Unraveling the determinants of overemployment and underemployment among older workers in Japan: A machine learning approach," The Japanese Economic Review, Springer, vol. 75(4), pages 691-737, December.
    2. Bertheau, Antoine & Vejlin, Rune, 2022. "Employer-to-Employer Transitions and Time Aggregation Bias," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 75(C).
    3. Lehner, Lukas & Ramskogler, Paul & Riedl, Aleksandra, 2022. "Begging thy coworker – Labor market dualization and the slow-down of wage growth in Europe," INET Oxford Working Papers 2022-04, Institute for New Economic Thinking at the Oxford Martin School, University of Oxford.
    4. Guido Bulligan & Elisa Guglielminetti & Eliana Viviano, 2017. "Wage growth in the euro area: where do we stand?," Questioni di Economia e Finanza (Occasional Papers) 413, Bank of Italy, Economic Research and International Relations Area.
    5. David Blanchflower & Alex Bryson & Jackson Spurling, 2024. "The wage curve after the Great Recession," Economica, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 91(362), pages 653-668, April.
    6. Hashimoto, Ken-ichi & Ono, Yoshiyasu & Schlegl, Matthias, 2023. "Structural unemployment, underemployment, and secular stagnation," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 209(C).
    7. Lukas Lehner & Paul Ramskogler & Aleksandra Riedl, 2024. "Beggaring Thy Co-Worker: Labor Market Dualization and the Wage Growth Slowdown in Europe," ILR Review, Cornell University, ILR School, vol. 77(5), pages 659-684, October.
    8. Jean‐François Fagnart & Marc Germain & Bruno Van der Linden, 2023. "Working time reduction and employment in a finite world," Scandinavian Journal of Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 125(1), pages 170-207, January.
    9. Roson, Roberto, 2022. "Education, Labor Force Composition, and Growth A General Equilibrium Analysis," Conference papers 333421, Purdue University, Center for Global Trade Analysis, Global Trade Analysis Project.
    10. Andrea Brandolini & Eliana Viviano, 2016. "Accounting for total work in labour statistics [Der Gesamtbetrag der Arbeit in den Arbeitsmarktstatistiken]," Journal for Labour Market Research, Springer;Institute for Employment Research/ Institut für Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung (IAB), vol. 49(3), pages 199-212, November.
    11. Chiara Mussida & Dario Sciulli, 2024. "Poverty, work intensity, and disability: evidence from European countries," The European Journal of Health Economics, Springer;Deutsche Gesellschaft für Gesundheitsökonomie (DGGÖ), vol. 25(9), pages 1605-1624, December.
    12. Fontanari, Claudia & Palumbo, Antonella & Salvatori, Chiara, 2022. "The updated Okun method for estimation of potential output with alternative measures of labor underutilization," Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, Elsevier, vol. 60(C), pages 158-178.
    13. John Komlos, 2019. "Estimating Labor Market Slack, U.S. 1994-2019," CESifo Working Paper Series 7941, CESifo.
    14. Giulia Bovini & Emanuele Ciani & Marta De Philippis & Stefania Romano, 2023. "Labour income inequality and in-work poverty: a comparison between euro area countries," Questioni di Economia e Finanza (Occasional Papers) 806, Bank of Italy, Economic Research and International Relations Area.
    15. Andrea Brandolini & Eliana Viviano, 2014. "Accounting for total work," Questioni di Economia e Finanza (Occasional Papers) 253, Bank of Italy, Economic Research and International Relations Area.
    16. Bell, David N.F. & Blanchflower, David G., 2019. "The well-being of the overemployed and the underemployed and the rise in depression in the UK," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 161(C), pages 180-196.
    17. Ruoran Zhu & Guifu Chen, 2022. "An empirical study on underemployment in China: Determinants and effects on wages," Journal of International Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 34(6), pages 1110-1129, August.
    18. D’Amuri, Francesco & De Philippis, Marta & Guglielminetti, Elisa & Lo Bello, Salvatore, 2022. "Slack and prices during Covid-19: Accounting for labor market participation," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 75(C).
    19. Ose, Solveig Osborg & Kaspersen, Silje Lill & Leinonen, Taina & Verstappen, Suzanne & de Rijk, Angelique & Spasova, Slavina & Hultqvist, Sara & Nørup, Iben & Pálsson, Jón R. & Blume, Andreas & Paterno, 2022. "Follow-up regimes for sick-listed employees: A comparison of nine north-western European countries," Health Policy, Elsevier, vol. 126(7), pages 619-631.
    20. Eliana Viviano & Andrea Brandolini, 2018. "Measuring employment and unemployment," IZA World of Labor, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA), pages 445-445, August.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:spr:soinre:v:175:y:2024:i:2:d:10.1007_s11205-024-03330-x. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.