To navigate, please click the appropriate green buttons.(Do not use the arrows on your keyboard)

Worked Out Problems

Slides Created By

Dr. John Dawson

Unemployment and Labor Force Participation RatesBegin

Modern Principles of Economics By Cowen/Tabarrok

Material from this presentation can be found in:

Chapter 10 (Macro)

Chapter 24 (Economics)

Answers

Worked Out Problems

Unemployment and Labor Force Participation Rates

To answer Questions 1-5 below, use the following actual data, in thousands, for the U.S. economy as of December, 2009.

1. What is the total (men plus women) labor force in the U.S. economy as of December, 2009?

2. What is the total unemployment rate?

3. What is the total labor force participation rate?

4. How does the unemployment rate among men and women differ?

5. How does the labor force participation rate among men and women differ?

In thousands: Total (age 16+) Women (age 16+) Men (age 16+)

Employed 137,792 65,293 72,499

Unemployed 15,267 6,312 8,955

Civilian, Non-Institutionalized Population

236,925 122,197 114,728

The End

Worked Out Problems

Unemployment and Labor Force Participation Rates

ANSWERS:

1. The labor force is made up of all workers, employed and unemployed, so labor force = employed + unemployed = 137,792 + 15,267 = 153,059 (all numbers in thousands).

2. The unemployment rate is the fraction of the labor force that is unemployed, calculated as unemployment rate = (unemployed/labor force) × 100 = (15,267/153,059) × 100 = 0.0997 × 100 = 9.97% or 10.0% (rounding to one decimal place).

3. The labor force participation rate is the fraction of the civilian, non-institutionalized population that is in the labor force, calculated as labor force participation rate = (labor force/civilian population) × 100 = (153,059/236,925) × 100 = 0.646 × 100 = 64.6%.

4. For women, unemployment rate = (unemployed/labor force) × 100 = (6,312/71,605) × 100 = 0.0882 × 100 = 8.8%. For men, unemployment rate = (unemployed/labor force) × 100 = (8,955/81,454) × 100 = 0.1099 × 100 = 10.99% or 11.0% (rounding to one decimal place). Thus, the unemployment rate is higher among men.

5. For women, labor force participation rate = (labor force/civilian population) × 100 = (71,605/122,197) × 100 = 0.586 × 100 = 58.6%. For men, labor force participation rate = (labor force/civilian population) × 100 = (81,454/114,728) × 100 = 0.7099 × 100 = 70.99% or 71.0% (rounding to one decimal place). Thus, the labor force participation rate is higher among men.

Back to Questions and Data