The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) gathers huge amounts of data about the US p
ID: 1168640 • Letter: T
Question
The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) gathers huge amounts of data about the US population, the labor force, employment and unemployment.
http://www.bls.gov/cps/
Experiment with clicking different links to find current data related to our study this week.
For your essay, relate some interesting information/statistics you found at the BLS webpage. Be certain to include the link. In addition, describe someone you know (or yourself), from current time or the past, who was unemployed and which source/type of unemployment (pages 106-108) typified their situation. What are the costs of unemployment?
Your text also introduces an interesting debate – do unemployment benefits extend unemployment by reducing the opportunity cost of remaining unemployed? Should we provide a safety net, or does it compound the problem?
Explanation / Answer
US population is 318.9 million as on 2014’s census.
Statistical data of labor force, employed, unemployed, and unemployment rates are given below: (Figures are in millions)
Month
Year
Labor force
Employed
Unemployed
Unemployment rate
January
2014
155.486
145.206
10.28
6.6%
April
2014
155.420
145.724
9.696
6.2%
July
2014
156.048
146.401
9.648
6.2%
October
2014
156.243
147.260
8.983
5.7%
January
2015
157.180
148.201
8.979
5.7%
All the above figures are given on regular interval. There are gaps of two months between each row.
Interesting issues: (1) The tendency of labor force is increasing from 2014 to 2015.
(2) Since labor force increases, employment tends to increase too.
(3) Unemployment gradually decreases, since employment increases.
(4) The net effect is the reduction in unemployment rates.
USA has just overcome the recession phase. Therefore, the crisis (financial) is over. It encourages employment, since new job opportunities are being created.
MR. J was unemployed for several years. The type of his unemployment was cyclical unemployment. It happens due to depression or recessional cause.
Unemployment cost: There are three angles of such cost—individual perspective, social perspective, and government perspective.
Individual: The loss of standard of living due to unemployment is a cost to the individual.
Social: Increasing number of immigration creates loss to the society.
Government: Government provides unemployment benefits. This is a cost to the country.
Month
Year
Labor force
Employed
Unemployed
Unemployment rate
January
2014
155.486
145.206
10.28
6.6%
April
2014
155.420
145.724
9.696
6.2%
July
2014
156.048
146.401
9.648
6.2%
October
2014
156.243
147.260
8.983
5.7%
January
2015
157.180
148.201
8.979
5.7%
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