Reference no: EM132476788
1. Assess whether the following would be counted as "unemployed" in the Current Employment Statistics survey.
a. A husband willingly stays home with children while his wife works.
b. A manufacturing worker whose factory just closed down.
c. A college student doing an unpaid summer internship.
d. A retiree.
e. Someone who has been out of work for two years but keeps looking for a job.
f. Someone who has been out of work for two months but isn't looking for a job.
g. Someone who hates her present job and is actively looking for another one.
h. Someone who decides to take a part time job because she could not find a full time position.
2. What is structural unemployment? Give examples of structural unemployment.
3. Using the definition of the unemployment rate, is an increase in the unemployment rate necessarily a bad thing for a nation?
4. While unemployment is highly negatively correlated with the level of economic activity, in the real world it responds with a lag. In other words, firms do not immediately lay off workers in response to a sales decline. They wait a while before responding. Similarly, firms do not immediately hire workers when sales pick up. What do you think accounts for the lag in response time?
5. Why do you think that unemployment rates are lower for individuals with more education?
6. Is it desirable to pursue a goal of zero unemployment? Why or why not?
7. What type of unemployment (cyclical, frictional, or structural) applies to each of the following:
a. landscapers laid off in response to drop in new housing construction during a recession.
b. coal miners laid off due to EPA regulations that shut down coal fired power
c. a financial analyst who quits his/her job in Chicago and is pursing similar work in Arizona
d. printers laid off due to drop in demand for printed catalogues and flyers as firms go the internet to promote an advertise their products.
e. factory workers in the U.S. laid off as the plants shut down and move to Mexico and Ireland.