Discussion: Employment Situation ( chapter 6)

Instructions:

The employment and unemployment data is published by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Please go to bls.gov

Select Economic Releases Tab

Click on Employment and Unemployment Monthly

Click on Employment Situation (HTML) under Monthly data

Click on Employment Situation Summary Table A, seasonally adjusted (second item in the table of contents)

Please answer the following questions:

1. What is the unemployment rate in November 2020 (The December 2020 data will be published on Friday, January 8th. See the economic indicators calendar: https://www.newyorkfed.org/research/calendars/nationalecon_cal.html)

2.How did the unemployment rate change since last year in the same period?

3. How did the civilian labor force change since last year the same period? What is the civilian labor force and what is the reason do you think about this change?

4. How did the participation rate change since last year in the same period? What is the participation rate and what is the reason do you think about this change?

5. Since the unemployment rate is the number of unemployed in the civilian labor force, can you calculate the current unemployment rate using the data in the table. Compare it with the unemployment rate given in the table. Did you get it right?

6. Please check the unemployment rates for different gender, race, age group, education level, and let us know what strikes you the most.

7. Please check the reasons for unemployment and duration of unemployment data, what does that tell you about the economic situation in general?

8. How did the 'discouraged workers' data change since last year the same period? What is discouraged workers? What does this data tell you about the economic situation in general?

9. How did the part-time workers for economic reasons data (including 'slack work or business conditions' and 'could find only part-time work' change since last year the same period?

10. The unemployment rate is a lagging indicator. Do you agree that the unemployment data tells us about the economic situation in general?

Note: This is an activity rather than a discussion, but this activity will allow you to evaluate the employment data, which is one of the economic indicators we use to evaluate the overall economy. We will use this data, along with other economic indicators when we discuss fiscal and monetary policy implemented in the US later in the semester.