Answer to Question #150474 in Microeconomics for Bruse

Question

The table below lists the number of people by labor force classification for the country of Springfield.

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Employed 78 million

Part-time employed 22 million

Unemployed 12 million

Not in the Labor Force 30 million

Discouraged 4 million

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Discouraged 4 million

(1) Calculate the number in the labor force, and the unemployment rate.

(2) Calculate the number in the adult population, and the labor force participation rate.

Answer 1

1) Number in the labor force

= Employed + part-time employed + unemployed

= 78 million + 22 million + 12 million

= 112 million

Unemployment rate = $\dfrac {unemployed}{labour \space force} × 100\%$

Unemployment rate = $\dfrac {12 \space million} {112 \space million} × 100\%$

Unemployment rate = 10.714286%

= 10.7%

2) Number in labour force population

= Total labour force + discouraged workers

= 112 million + 4 million

= 116 million

Labor force participation rate

= $\dfrac {labor \space force} {Working-age \space population} ×100\%$

$= \dfrac {112 \space million} {116 \space million } × 100\%$

= 96.551724%

= 96.6%