意指未获得任何有薪工作的状态。在经济学范畴中，一个人愿意并有能力为获取报酬而工作，但尚未找到工作的情况，就被认为是失业。失业率是劳动人口里符合「失业条件」者所占的比例。

实际上，确定确实在找工作的失业人员数量是非常困难的，特别是在找到工作前失业救济金已经过期的那些人的数量。失业的历史就是现代化的历史。在古代这并不被看作是一个问题，尽管农村劳动力的隐性失业人员几乎没什幺事可做，特别是在人口过剩的情况下。这一情况如今依然普遍存在于类似中国大陆地区这样的城乡二元经济体之中，如果将该国农村的隐性失业人口也计算在内，那幺失业总数约为2亿人，真实失业率超过了30%，远远高于17%的城镇登记失业率。

Unemployment occurs when people who are without work are actively seeking work. The unemployment rate is a measure of the prevalence of unemployment and it is calculated as a percentage by dividing the number of unemployed individuals by all individuals currently in the labor force. During periods of recession, an economy usually experiences a relatively high unemployment rate. According to International Labour Organization report, more than 200 million people globally or 6% of the world's workforce were without a job in 2012.