The duration of unemployment: A user guide
by Miles Corak and Andrew Heisz
Business and Labour Market Analysis Division
Analytical Studies Branch research paper series, No. 084
The objective of this paper is to introduce in a new measure of the
average duration of unemployment spells using Canadian data.
The paper summarizes the work of Corak (1993) and Corak and Heisz (1994)
on the average complete duration of unemployment in a non-technical
way by focusing on the distinction between it and the average incomplete
duration of unemployment, which is regularly released by Statistics
Canada. It is pointed out that the latter is a lagging cyclical indicator.
The average complete duration of unemployment is a more accurate indicator
of prevailing labour market conditions, but some assumptions required
in its derivation also imply that it lags actual developments.
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