失业潮 [shī yè cháo] Unemployment Wave，意思是大批人失去工作。失业者的数量和失业的速度多到像海边的潮水一样大批涌来。
Unemployment Wave means that a large number of people have lost their jobs. The number of unemployed people and the speed of unemployment are so large that they are pouring in like the tide at the seaside.
失业意指有工作能力的人未处于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，且有获取工作的行动，但却没找到工作的情况，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藏性失业人员几乎没什么事可做，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，那么失业总数约为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。
失业率的计算方法为：失业率（%）=（失业人口÷劳动人口）× 100%。
失业率虽然是一个简单的数字，但是失业率与其他经济指标有着密切的关系。因此，有学者希望透过研究失业率，得出对宏观经济的更深入的认识。
Unemployment means that people who are able to work are not in any paid work. In the economic field, a person is considered unemployed if he is willing and able to work for pay and has taken actions to obtain a job, but has not found a job. The unemployment rate is the proportion of the working population that meets the “unemployment conditions”.
In practice, it is very difficult to determine the number of unemployed people who are actually looking for work, especially the number of people whose unemployment benefits have expired before they find a job. The history of unemployment is the history of modernization. In ancient times, this was not considered a problem, although the hidden unemployed in the rural labor force had little to do, especially in the case of overpopulation. This situation is still prevalent in urban-rural dual economies such as mainland China. If the hidden unemployed in the country’s rural areas are also counted, the total number of unemployed people is about 200 million, and the real unemployment rate exceeds 30%, which is much higher than the registered urban unemployment rate of 17%.
The unemployment rate is calculated as follows: unemployment rate (%) = (unemployed population ÷ labor force) × 100%.
Although the unemployment rate is a simple number, it is closely related to other economic indicators. Therefore, some scholars hope to gain a deeper understanding of the macro economy by studying the unemployment rate.