Question

Find information on the unemployment rate in the US and find the comparable measure for the country you have chosen. Provide the unemployment rates for the three most recent years available. Discuss the nature of unemployment in each country, describing (qualitatively) whether most of the unemployment is frictional, structura,l or cyclical. Provide explanation of the material that you present, noting the implications of what this means for the country's economy.

Answer 1

Unemployment rate unchanged at 3.6 percent in May 2019. In May 2019, the unemployment rate was unchanged over the month, at 3.6 percent, and the number of people who were unemployed was little changed, at 5.9 million. The jobless rate was 3.6 percent in April 2019 and 3.8 percent in May 2018.

In 2020, a record 3.3 million people filed claims for unemployment in the US as the Covid-19 pandemic shut down large parts of America’s economy and the full scale of the impact of the crisis began to emerge.

Experts warned of a “catastrophic unemployment crisis” after the labor department announced jobless claims filed by individuals seeking unemployment benefits rose by more than 3 million to 3.28 million from 281,000 the previous week. The figure is the highest ever reported, beating the previous record of 695,000 claims filed the week ending 2 October 1982.

This rate of unemployment before 2020 was structural but with Covid-19 this has become frictional. This is because the pandemic temporarily hampers the US economy.