7 Reducing Unemployment Will cash bonuses speed the return to work of unemployed people A state department of labor notes that last year 41 of people who filed claims for unemployment insurance found a new job within 15 weeks As an experiment the state offers 500 to people filing unemploy ment claims if they find a job within 15 weeks The percent who do so increases to 53 Suggest some conditions that might make it easier or harder to find a job this year as opposed to last year Confounding with these lurking variables makes it impossible to say whether the 500 bonus really caused the increase