6. Discouraged workers

Which of the following statements correctly describe discouraged workers?Check all that apply.

They have given up on looking for a job but are still willing to work.

They are counted as part of the labor force by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

They are full-time workers who would like to work part time.

They are part-time workers willing to work full time.

The following table contains employment information for the United States from January 2009.

Civilian Noninstitutional Population	Employed	Unemployed	Discouraged
(Number of people)	(Number of people)	(Number of people)	(Number of people)
234,739,000	142,099,000	11,616,000	734,000

The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) calculates the official unemployment rate using the following formula:

UnemploymentRateUnemploymentRate

==

NumberofpersonsunemployedCivilianLaborForceNumberofpersonsunemployedCivilianLaborForce

Note that the official unemployment rate does not account for discouraged workers. Under the BLS definition, the total number of unemployed workers is and the civilian labor force is .

If discouraged workers were to be included, the total number of unemployed workers would be and the civilian labor force would be .

Fill in the following table by calculating the official unemployment rate using these two different methods.

Official Unemployment Rate	Unemployment Rate with Discouraged Workers

Based on your calculations, if the Bureau of Labor Statistics were to include discouraged workers in the official unemployment rate, the reported unemployment rate would .