national rate of unemployment

National economy's level of unemployment that persists even when the labor market is in equilibrium. It is usually equivalent to the level of voluntary-unemployment because all those who want employment are already employed. Concept of national rate of unemployment was used by the US monetarist economist Milton Friedman to claim that (in the long run) neither fiscal policy nor monetary policy has any effect on the level of unemployment they affect only the rate of inflation. See also natural rate of employment.