Heterogeneity in the labor market: unemployment and non-participation in Brazil

This article examines the criteria for classification between unemployment and non-participation in the labor force. We analyze the behavior of anon-employed subgroup, called marginally attached to the labor market (those who are not working or searching for a job in the reference week, but are willing to work), to test whether the transitions are similar to either the unemployed or to those non attached to the labor market. We observed that this group is behaviorally distinct and could be considered an intermediate state between the unemployed and those non-participating in the labor force, although closer to the unemployed.