The Structure of Agricultural Unemployment in the United States

Abstract

ABSTRACTThis paper examines whether employment in agriculture is more sensitive to fluctuations in the level of economic activity than is employment in the economy as a whole. The analytical framework of the investigation rests on two functional relationships between unemployment and economic activity introduced by Thurow. The results indicate that agricultural unemployment is impacted by variations in economic activity to the same extent as is total unemployment. Finally, when subjected to a stability test, the underlying structural relationships are deemed to be stable over the sample period (1948‐1988).