Question

1)Review this data from October 2007 and make the calculations:

Each of your answers should be a number rounded to one decimal place; do not use a percent symbol.

Civilian Non-institutionalized Population: 232,715,000
Labor Force: 153,183,000
Employed: 145,946,000

Calculate the Labor Force Participation Rate:   % ---

Calculate the Unemployment Rate:   %---

2)Review this data from October 2009 and make the calculations:

Each of your answers should be a number rounded to one decimal place; do not use a percent symbol.

Civilian Non-institutionalized Population: 236,550,000
Labor Force: 153,784,000
Employed: 138,432,000

Calculate the Labor Force Participation Rate:   % --
Calculate the Unemployment Rate:   %--

3)Review this data from October 2011 and make the calculations:

Each of your answers should be a number rounded to one decimal place; do not use a percent symbol.

Civilian Non-institutionalized Population: 240,269,000

Labor Force: 153,961,000

Employed: 140,368,000

Calculate the Labor Force Participation Rate:   % --

Calculate the Unemployment Rate:   %--

4)The National Bureau of Economic Research officially dated the 2008 Recession as having started in December 2007 and ending in June 2009.  

Note the dates of the calculations you made in the previous questions--before the recession, immediately following the recession, and two years after the recession.

Based on the information you calculated, answer the following questions:

a. Unemployment rises during a recession:   (write true or false)

b. Following a recession, the unemployment rate quickly returns back to unemployment rate that existed before the recession:  (write true or false)

5)An Alternative Measure of Labor Under-utilization

U-6 Rate: = (Unemployed + PT for economic reasons + Marginally Attached) x 100
(Labor Force + Marginally Attached)

October 2009 Data:
Labor Force: 153,784,000
Employed: 138,432,000
Unemployed: 15,352,000
Part time for economic reasons: 9,284,000
Marginally attached to the labor force: 2,373,000

Calculate the U-6 rate:

Your answer should be a number rounded to one decimal place; do not use a percent symbol.

Answer 1

1)

Labor force participation rate = Labor force/non-institutionalized civilian population

= 153,183,000/232,715,000 × 100 = 65.8

Unemployment rate = (labor force - employed)/labor forced × 100 = (153,183,000 - 145,946,000)/153,183,000 × 100 = 4.7

2)

Similarly,

Labor force participation rate in 2009 = 153,784,000/236,550,000 × 100 = 65

Unemployment rate in 2009 = (153,784,000 - 138,432,000)/153,784,000 × 100 = 10

3)

Labor force participation rate in 2011 = 153,961,000/240,269,000 × 100 = 64.1

Unemployment rate = 8.8

4)

a. True. The unemployment rate during the recession increases

b. False. If we observe, the unemployment rate before recession was 4.7% but even after 2 years post recession it was at 8.8%. The latter is of course a decrease in unemployment rate when compared to that during recession, but no where near to the old rate.

5)

U-6 rate = (15,352,000 + 9,284,000 + 2,373,000)/(153,784,000 + 2,373,000) × 100 = 17.3

Hope this helps. Cheers!