1.What are the three categories into which the Bureau of Labor Statistics divides everyone? How does the BLS compute the labor force, the unemployment rate, and the labor-force participation rate?

2.Is unemployment typically short-term or long-term? Explain.

3.Why is frictional unemployment inevitable? How might the government reduce the amount of frictional unemployment?

4.In June 2009, at the trough of the Great Recession, the Bureau of Labor Statistics announced that of all adult Americans, 140,196,000 were employed, 14,729,000 were unemployed, and 80,729,000 were not in the labor force. Use this information to calculate:

a.the adult population

b.the labor force

c.the labor-force participation rate

d.the unemployment rate