The BLS "Employment Situation" report comes out tomorrow, February 5th, 2010. Fill in the table below (use the "Seasonally Adjusted" numbers when available) and answer the questions below.
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LF
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E
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U
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U-Rate
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~LF
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P
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Part. Rate
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E-Rate
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01/2009
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01/2010
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Changes:
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Percent Change:
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(a) What happened to the Participation Rate since January 2009?
(b) Why isn't the change in Employed the negative of the change in Unemployed?
(c) Did the amount of workers in the Labor Force increase or decrease since January 2009?
(d) Did the amount of workers "Not-In-The-Labor Force" increase or decrease since January 2009?
(e) Why aren't the changes in LF and ~LF the negative of each other?
(f) Does the change in Participation equal the change in LF plus the changein
(g) If the Participation Rate stayed the same between January 2009 and 2010, would this have changed the level of unemployment (U)? That is, relative to the Labor Force of January 2009, what is the current (January 2010) unemployment rate?
(h) What was the change in Employment between December 2009 and January 2010 according to the Household Data? According to the Establishment Data? Why does the BLS use the Establishment Data? (Hint: see the "Technical Note" section of the report.)