Alternative measures of the average duration of unemployment
by Miles Corak and Andrew Heisz
Business and Labour Market Analysis Division
Analytical Studies Branch research paper series, No. 083
This paper examines the robustness of a measure of the average complete
duration of unemployment in Canada to a host of assumptions used in
its derivation.
In contrast to the average incomplete duration of unemployment, which
is a lagging cyclical indicator, this statistic is a coincident indicator
of the business cycle. The impact of using a steady state as opposed
to a non steady state assumption, as well as the impact of various corrections
for response bias are explored. It is concluded that a non steady state
estimator would be a valuable compliment to the statistics on unemployment
duration that are currently released by many statistical agencies, and
particularly Statistics Canada.
View the full publication.
You need to use the free Adobe Reader to view PDF documents. To view (open) these files, simply click on the link. To download (save) them, right-click on the link. Note that if you are using Internet Explorer or AOL, PDF documents sometimes do not open properly. See Troubleshooting PDFs. PDF documents may not be accessible by some devices. For more information, visit the Adobe website or contact us for assistance.
