Question

9. Problems and Applications Q3

The table below shows the annual average data on the employment status of the U.S. civilian non-institutional population by age in 2015.

Age	Employed	Unemployed	Not in Labor Force
	(Thousands of People)	(Thousands of People)	(Thousands of People)
16 to 19 years	4,734	966	10,919
20 to 24 years	14,022	1,501	6,448
25 to 54 years	96,638	4,515	23,957
55 to 64 years	24,975	978	14,640
65 years and over	8,465	337	37,708
Total	148,834	8,296	93,671

Source: “Labor Force Statistics from the Current Population Survey.”Bureau of Labor Statistics.

What is the national unemployment rate?

3.4%

5.3%

8.9%

59.6%

Complete the following table by computing the unemployment rate for each age group.

Age	Unemployment Rate
16 to 19 years	(16.9%,20.4,4.3,8.8)
20 to 24 years	(10.7,9.7,4.6,23.3)
25 to 54 years	(4.5,24.8,18.8,4.7)
55 to 64 years	(3.8,6.7,58.6,4.0)
65 years and over	(4%,22.4,8.9,3.8)

Which of the following groups has an unemployment rate lower than the national average unemployment rate? Check all that apply.

16 to 19 years

20 to 24 years

25 to 54 years

55 to 64 years

65 years and over

Answer 1

1.

Unemployment rate is calculated on the total labor force.

Labor force is the aggregate of employed and unemployed.

Labor force = Total Employed + Total Unemployed

                    = 148,834 + 8,296

                    = 157,130

Unemployment rate = (Total Unemployed / Labor force) × 100

                                 = (8,296 / 157,130) × 100

                                 = 5.279…. %

                                 = 5.3% (rounded to 1 decimal place) [Answer]

2.

The required table is as below:

16 to 19	{966 / (4,734 + 966)} × 100 = (966 / 5,700) × 100	16.9%
20 to 24	{1,501 / (14,022 + 1,501)} × 100 = (1,501 / 15,523) × 100	9.7%
25 to 54	{4,515 / (96,638 + 4,515)} × 100 = (4,515 / 101,153) × 100	4.5% Lower than national (5.3%)
55 to 64	{978 / (24,975 + 978)} × 100 = (978 / 25,953) × 100	3.8% Lower than national (5.3%)
65 and above	{337 / (8,465 + 337)} × 100 = (337 / 8,802) × 100	3.8% Lower than national (5.3%)

3.

Last three groups have lower rates than the national rate.

Answer: 25 to 54; 55 to 64; 65 and above