Fair Labor Standards Act – The federal Wage and Hours Law adopted by Congress in 1938 that set a minimum wage for most American workers. It also mandates overtime pay beyond an eight-hour workday or over 40 hours a week. 

Federal Information Processing Standards (FIPS) – Standards for information processing issued by the National Bureau of Standards in the U.S. Department of Commerce. Includes a numeric designation for geographic areas such as states, counties, and metropolitan areas.

Federal/State Cooperative Programs – A series of statistical programs in which the states and federal government cooperate in accomplishing the goals of the program.

Finance, Insurance, Real Estate (FIRE) – In the Standard Industrial Classification  coding structure, a service producing industry.

Firm – A business entity, either corporate or otherwise. May consist of one or several establishments. 

Fixed Costs – Production costs that do not change with changes in the quantity of output. 

Frictional Unemployment – The temporary joblessness that results from individuals who are between jobs, engaged in seasonal work, have quit their jobs and are looking for better ones, or are looking for their first jobs. This type of unemployment is usually short term and is caused by the economy’s inability to match job seekers with jobs quickly. 
          [See also - Cyclical Unemployment, Seasonal Unemployment]

Fringe Benefits – Non-wage returns to workers for labor services; includes time off with pay for holidays, vacations, and sick leave, retirement benefits, health care, and similar benefits. 

Full Employment – A state of the economy in which all people who want to work can find employment without much difficulty at prevailing rates of pay. Some unemployment, both voluntary and involuntary, is not incompatible with full employment, since allowances must be made for frictional and seasonal factors that are always present to some degree. 
          [See also - Non-Accelerating Inflation Rate of Unemployment (NAIRU)]

Full-Time Employment – Generally includes people who worked 35 hours or more during the survey week (week of the month that includes the 12th). Persons who worked between one and 34 hours are designated as working part-time. 

Federal Unemployment Tax Act (FUTA) – This Act became Chapter 23, Sections 3301-3311, of the U.S. Internal Revenue Code, authorizing the tax imposed on employers with respect to people they employ for the purpose of funding unemployment insurance benefits. The FUTA made possible the federal/state system that established an employment security program in each state. 

Alphabetical Glossary Listing

A

B

C

D

E

F

G

H

I

J

K

L

M

N

O

P

Q

R

S

T

U

V

W

X

Y

Z

Glossary References

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Iowa Workforce Information Network (IWIN)