A country’s labor force is the sum of the number of employed and unemployed workers. The accompanying table provides data on the size of the labor force and the number of unemployed workers for different regions of the United States.

Labor force (thousands)
Unemployed (thousands)
Region May 2010 May 2011 May 2010 May 2011 Northeast 28,303.7 28,201.9 2,482.7 2,254.1 South 55,223.5 55,544.1 5,126.3 4,896.6 Midwest 34,520.2 34,430.0 3,305.7 2,803.7 West 35,827.2 35,613.0 3,954.0 3,664.4

a. Calculate the number of workers employed in each of the regions in May 2010 and May 2011. Use your answers to calculate the change in the total number of workers employed between May 2010 and May 2011.

b. For each region, calculate the growth in the labor force from May 2010 to May 2011.

c. Compute unemployment rates in the different regions of the country in May 2010 and May 2011.

d. What can you infer about the fall in unemployment rates over this period? Was it caused by a net gain in the number of jobs or by a large fall in the number of people seeking jobs?