As of January 2022, the official unemployment rate in the U.S. was about 4%, equal to the official U.S. unemployment rate of January 2019. This rate of 4% was much lower than the official rate of 14.7% rate at the beginning of the pandemic in April 2020. Some have argued that this relatively low unemployment rate indicates that the U.S. economy is currently strong.

• What role did the U.S. Federal government play in reducing the unemployment rate so much in a relatively short period of time? How would a macroeconomist argue that this government intervention was necessary to reduce the economic harm caused by the pandemic, rather than leaving the economic response and recovery solely to private capitalist investment?
• What important factors related to the job market are NOT included in the official unemployment rate, which might indicate that the U.S. economy is not as strong as the most recent official unemployment rate makes it seem? Put another way, how could these other factors indicate that the U.S. job market is still weak, despite the relatively low official unemployment rate?