4 Table 4 presents an alternative definition of unemployment for males, computed using the 1988 **ENE,** which includes those who appear to be idle -that is, those individuals who are not working, **studying,** taking care of the household or otherwise occupied, but who are too younr. to he retired and are physical'y able to woLk. We do not compute similar alternative unemployment rates for femaies since their labor force attachment patterns are necessarily more complex because of their household and child-rearing responsibilities. Column (I) in Table 4 shows the official unemployment rate, calculated to include only those who have actively looked for a job during the month preceding the survey. Column (2) shows the unemployment rate computed including thosc who looked for a job sometime during the two months preceding the survey. Finally, co;umn (3) presents an alternative definition of unemployment, which includes those who appear to be idle TUsing the alternative definition of unemployment increase the average rate significantly frot., 3.4% to 6.4%. The most ir.-eresting feature of the table is that the largest increases correspond to t.,ose under 20 and to those with little education. This suggests that the choice of definition can lsave important implications for the analysis of the structure and characteristics of unemployment.

Tables **_5_** and 6 report the distribution of unemployment by age and education categories. Using the standard definition of unemployment (corresponding to the ofticial rate and to column (1) in Table 4), we find that for men Ps much as 60% of total unemployment is accounted for by individuals below the age of 25. The comparable fraction for ferrmalei **s** even higher at about 77%. As regards education, 53% of total male unemploynment and 62% of total fernale unemployment corresponds to individuals with some form of secondary education. Individuals with completed secondary education (9 years of schooling) a-count for 20% of total male unemployment and about 19% of total female unemployment. Those with higher secondary education (10-12 years of schooling) account for an additional 20% of male unemployment and a stunning 35% of female unemployment. These figures indicate that unemployment is concentrated among those with a certain level of education and not, as could be expected, among the least educated. This su,gests, in turn, that the reservation wage and, possibly, family income are important determinants of unemployment: more educated individuals will tend to have both a higher reservation wage and more family income, which would allow them to afford longer job search periods.

These conclusions have to be modified slightly when the alternative definition is used. Taking into account those in, .viduals who report to be idle sli;htly alters the age pattern, giving more importance to those between the ages of 12 and 16. More importantly, using the alternative definition also tends to increase the fraction of males with less than secondary education in total unemployment. This reflects the fact that many of those individuals who report to be idle have little education.

The above tables suggest that a large fraction of the unemployed are young. This raises the question of how many of these young unemployed individuals are first-time job seekers or new entrants into the labor force? Table 7 presents the fraction of total unemployment accounted for by new entrants from 1983 through 1991. nte table shows that, although it is still significant, the proportion of new labor market entrants among the unemployed has actually declined steadily since 1983, from nearly 30% to about 19% in 1991.

# **III** - **THE DETERMINANTS OF UN IEMPLOYMENT**

The previous section analyzed both unemployment rates and the distribution of unemployment by sex, age and education levels. However, further statistical analysis is needed to take into