Explain why the natural unemployment rate is not zero and why the unemployment rate fluctuates around the natural unemployment rate.

Use the following information to work Problems 8 and 9.

The metro areas with the lowest and highest unemployment In December 2015, Ames, Iowa, had the lowest unemployment in the United States at 2.2 percent of the workforce. At the other end of the scale was El Centro, California, with 19.6 percent of its workforce unemployed.

Source: Forbes, February 9, 2016 In the depth of the 2008–2009 recession, the unemployment rate in Ames peaked at 5.7 percent. In El Centro, it peaked at 30.3 percent.