what is okun''s law ? In economics study, Okun's law also named after Arthur Melvin Okun is an empirically observed relationship relating among unemployment to losses in a specific country's production. The "gap version" shows that for every 1% increasing in the rate of unemployment, a country's GDP will be at additional roughly 2% lower than their potential GDP. The "difference version" shows the relationship among quarterly changes in unemployment & quarterly changes in real GDP. The stability & usefulness of the law has been disputed. The term refers to economist Arthur Okun who proposed this relationship in 1962.

Imperfect relationship

Okun's law is more precisely known "Okun's rule of thumb" due to it is primarily an empirical inspection rather than a result resulting from theory. Okun's law is estimated because factors other than employment for example as productivity affect output. In Okun's real statement of his law, a 3% increase in resultant output corresponds to a 1% decline in the rate of unemployment; a .5% increase in labor force participation; a .5% increase in hours worked per an employee; and a 1 % increase in output per hours worked called labor productivity.