20.1 Q&A

The unemployment rate is calculate as follows Which of the following is NOT one of the conditions someone needs to meet to be counted as unemployed?

(Number of unemployed / Labor Force) X 100 They had worked only one hour per week during the previous four weeks

1. Which one of the following depicts an accurate description of the household survey and the establishment survey? 2. Many economists prefer..?

1. The household survey interviews households and measures the unemployed rate whereas the establishment survey interviews businesses and measures employment rate 2. The establishment survey because it is determined by actual payroll records rather than unverified answers

1. The labor force participation rate is calculated by...? 2. Use the graph to the right to help determine which of the following statements [...] is *false*

1. The percentage of working-age population that is in the labor force or (labor-force/working-age popul)*100 2. The labor force participation of adult men and adult women were equal in 1990

1. The employment-population ratio measures the..? 2. When an unemployed person drops out the labor force, the unemployment rate...? 3. When an unemployed person drops out of the labor force, it ..?

1. percentage of the working age population that is employed 2. understates the true degree of joblessness in the economy 3. does not affect the employment-population ratio?

An Article in the New York Times noted that employment in NYC was increasing but so was the city's unemployment rate. [...] 1. The reporter might consider this message to be contradictory because the... 2. The apparent contradiction could be explained if the...?

1. unemployment rate increased and employment increased 2. labor force also increased.

Which groups tend to have above average unemployment rates, and which groups tend to have below average unemployment rates? Which one is NOT accurate?

Black teenagers as a group have lower unemployment rates than white teenagers

In August 2013, the working age population [Long text] Use this data (better the diagram) to help determine which of the following statement is true: The unemployment rate is... The labor Force participation is... The labor force is... Both A and B.

Both A and B. unemployment rate: (Nr. unemployed / labor force)*100 labor Force participation: (Labor Force / Working age population) * 100

Complete the table below (Unemployment rate) The household survey shows that between July and August 2013, the total number of people employed decreased by 115000. Yet the unemployment rate also declined. How is this possible?

July: 7.39 % (11514000/155798000)*100=7.3903 (Nr. unemployed / labor force)*100 August: 7.28% (11316000/155486000)*100=7.2778 Change: -0.1% 7.28-7.39=-0.11 It is possible if the labor force participation rate also falls.

In his 2013 State of the union address, President B. Obama observed that during the previous year, "our businesses have created over 6m. new jobs. Is it likely that the US economy created only about six million jobs during this time period?

No, the economy could have created more jobs, but some were also lost during that period.

[Related to solved problem #1] Currently, the Bureau of labor statistic does not include homemakers in its employment and labor force totals. What would happen to the unemployment rate and the labor force participation rate if homemakers were included in the these numbers?

The unemployment rate would decrease and the labor force participation rate would increase

Suppose that you are available to go to work but have not looked for a job for at least the last for weeks because you believe that there aren't any jobs available. You would be counted as.. Which of the following is the correct formula for calculating the unemployment rate?

a discouraged worker unemployment rate: (Nr. unemployed / labor force)*100

The employment-population ratio provides the "best summary" of the state of the job market rather than the unemployment rate, because it measures the fraction of the population that

has jobs

All of the following are problems in measuring unemployment except that ...? When there are part-time (or discouraged) workers, the official BLS measure of the unemployment rate.... the true degree of unemployement

people on active military service are included as unemployed UNDERstates