Economic Lessons from Friends: What Can we Learn about Unemployment?
Chandler, Joey, and Rachel are Unemployed
Note - this video - and the description below, were all written prior to Matthew Perry’s death last weekend. I was stunned by the news and my thoughts and prayers are with his friends and family.
Friends is one of the top TV shows of all time and also provides a number of economic lessons. In this video, we examine the different ways that the various friends become unemployed. This includes Joey losing his job, Rachel getting fired once and jumping onto the job market for the first time in another situation, and Chandler quitting his job. The friends allow us to explore the different types of unemployment: structural, cyclical, and frictional unemployment by using their experiences.
There are three main types of unemployment that economists teach about in principles of economics courses. Frictional unemployment occurs because of frictions involved in getting a job - the time it takes to obtain employment. Cyclical unemployment is unemployment that occurs because of a downturn in the economy. And structural unemployment occurs when the types of jobs available don’t match the skills of workers. So what type of unemployment did each of the friends go through? Watch the video to find out!
The hit series "Friends" is a world wide beloved sitcom following the lives of Rachel, Ross, Monica, Chandler, Joey, and Phoebe as they navigate their personal and professional lives in New York City. In this series we focus on several scenes that demonstrate economic lessons.