Question

Is it possible for total employment and the unemployment rate to rise simultaneously? Why or why not. (Note: you might find it useful to demonstrate this with a numerical example.)

Answer 1

Yes, i think it is possible for the unemployment rate and the employment rate to rise simultaneously.The unemployment rate rises, as there are more unemployed but the same labor force.Similarly,the employment ratio rises, since population declines more than employment does.

Assume that there is a place A with the total labor force in year 2002 as 1000 and the unemployeed workers there were 100.
So the unemployment rate of place A, as per the formula,
(100/1000)*100%
=10%

And the number of people working were 1000-100 = 900

Now in year 2003 say total labor force increase to 1200 because of the population rise or other reasons and the total people who actually got jobs in year 2003 were 1000.

So the total number of people working in 2003 are 1000 ie 100 more than last year.

But the unemployment rate for year 2003 would be:
(200/1200)*100%
=16.67%

So in year 2003 the population of place A with jobs was 100 more than the same in year 2002 but the rate of unemployment also rose by 6.67% in the same year.

Hence, in this case, the number of people working and the unemployment rate actually rose together.