Question

1. Measuring employment, unemployment, and labor force participation Consider a small economy composed of six people: Bob, Cho, Eric, Ginny, Lucia, and Kenji. Each person's employment status is described in the following table. Based on the criteria used by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), identify each person’s status as employed, unemployed, “not in the labor force” (if not in the civilian labor force but still part of the adult population), or “not in the adult population” if not in the civilian adult population. Person Status Bob is a 70-year-old professor. He teaches only one or two courses a year, but he's still pursuing an active research agenda. selector 1    Employed Not in the adult population Not in the labor force Unemployed Cho is a 31-year-old professional basketball player. She finished her last season as a player 3 weeks ago and is currently interviewing for a coaching position. selector 2    Employed Not in the adult population Not in the labor force Unemployed Eric is a 45-year-old accountant who has been out of work for almost a year. He became so discouraged that he gave up on his job search a couple of months ago. selector 3    Employed Not in the adult population Not in the labor force Unemployed Lucia is a 26-year-old who lost her job as a copy editor for a local newspaper. She has spent the past few weeks out of work and interviewing for other editing jobs. She is thinking about going back to grad school if her job search doesn't succeed after a few more weeks. selector 4    Employed Not in the adult population Not in the labor force Unemployed Kenji is a 17-year-old who just graduated from high school. He is taking it easy this summer, relaxing by the pool with his friends and family, and volunteering part-time at the local nursing home. selector 5    Employed Not in the adult population Not in the labor force Unemployed Ginny is a 13-year-old student at Southside Middle School. She babysits her younger sister and does other chores, so her parents give her an allowance of $30 per week. selector 6    Employed Not in the adult population Not in the labor force Unemployed Points: Close Explanation Explanation: Complete the right half of the following equation to reflect the labor force participation rate reported by the BLS. Labor Force Participation RateLabor Force Participation Rate = = selector 1    100×Number in Labor ForceNumber of Employed Workers100×Number in Labor ForceNumber of Employed Workers 100×Number of Unemployed WorkersLabor Force100×Number of Unemployed WorkersLabor Force 100×Number of Employed WorkersAdult Population100×Number of Employed WorkersAdult Population 100×Number in Labor ForceAdult Population100×Number in Labor ForceAdult Population Points: According to this formula, what is the labor force participation rate of this economy of six people? 20% 60% 66.67% 200% Points: Close Explanation Explanation: Complete the right half of the following equation to reflect the unemployment rate reported by the BLS. Unemployment RateUnemployment Rate = = selector 1    100×Number in Labor ForceNumber of Employed Workers100×Number in Labor ForceNumber of Employed Workers 100×Number of Employed WorkersAdult Population100×Number of Employed WorkersAdult Population 100×Number in Labor ForceAdult Population100×Number in Labor ForceAdult Population 100×Number of Unemployed WorkersLabor Force100×Number of Unemployed WorkersLabor Force Points: According to this formula, what is the unemployment rate of this economy of six people? 20% 60% 66.67% 200%

Answer 1

According to the BLS, a person of 16 years and over and non-institutionalized is called employed if he/she worked positive hours for money and worked 35 hours and over in any productive front without money. The unemployed are the person 16 years and over and part of the non-institutionalized population who are not working and actively looking for a job in part 4 weeks. The discouraged workers are unemployed stopped looking for work 4 weeks earlier and not in the labor force is the person who is discouraged worker and part of the working population and not part of the working-age population.

Therefore, given the options:

• 70 years old professor is employedbecause he does some productive work.
• Cho is looking for work and left her current employment more than 3 weeks earlier. She is unemployed.
• Eric is discouraged and stopped looking for a job more than 4 weeks ago. He is not in the labor force.
• Lucia is still looking for a job actively. then she is unemployed.
• Kenji is not looking for a job and not doing any productive work. He is not in the labor force.
• Ginny is 13 years old and not part of the adult population.

In this economy of 6 people, 5 are of the adult age population, among which 2 are not in the labor force and 3 are counted as the labor force. Among these three 2 are unemployed and only 1 is employed. Then according to BLS the labor force participation rate is

The unemployment rate is