Question

The following is a report from a BLS survey taker:

“There were 70 people in the houses I visited. 12 of them were children under the age of 16, 25 people had full-time jobs, and 6 had part-time jobs. There were 10 retirees, 5 full-time homemakers, 5 full-time students over age 16, and 2 people who were disabled and cannot work. The remaining people did not have jobs, but all said they would like one. One of these people had not looked actively for work for three months, however.”

Find the labor force, the working-age population, the number of employed workers, and the number of unemployed workers.

Instructions: Enter your responses as whole numbers.

Labor force: people

Working-age population: people

Number of employed workers: people

Number of unemployed workers: people

Answer 1

There were 70 people in the houses I visited.

25 people had full-time jobs, and

6 had part-time jobs.

In this problem, there are 70 people visited, but many are not in the labor force: children, the retired, homemakers, students and those not actively looking for jobs.

Here, this means we must exclude:

12 of them were children under the age of 16,

10 retirees,

5 full-time homemakers,

5 full-time students over age 16,

2 people who were disabled and cannot work

One of these people had not looked actively for work for three months, however

The remaining people did not have jobs, but all said they would like one.

The labor force in this example is 70 – 35 = 35

Of these, 31 have jobs (25 full-time, 6 part-time) and are counted as employed.

Remaining 4 do not have jobs despite an active search and are counted as unemployed. Hence the unemployment rate in this group is 4 / 35 = .1142 or 11.42 percent

Labor force:   35

Working-age population:   70 – 12 = 58 It includes all those 15 to 65.

It includes both those who are in the labor force and not in the labour force. It includes employed, unemployed, retirees, homemakers, full time students, available for work but currently not working, discouraged workers, not currently looking for work, etc.

Number of employed workers:   31

Number of unemployed workers:   04