Exam 28: Unemployment

Minimum wage laws, labor unions, and efficiency wages all generate unemployment by what common mechanism?

The labor-force participation rate tells us the fraction of the population that is able to participate in the labor market.

The unemployment rate reported by the Bureau of Labor Statistics clearly understates the true unemployment rate.

Causes of the changing role of women in American society over the past several decades include new technologies that have reduced the amount of time required to complete routine household tasks, improved birth control, and changing political and social attitudes.

How are discouraged workers counted in the unemployment rate?

Over the past several decades in the United States, the labor-force participation rate of women has increased and the labor-force participation rate of men had remained steady.

Economists at the Congressional Budget Office estimated that for 2012, the U.S. natural rate of unemployment was about 5.5 percent.

Suppose that consumers decide to walk to work more frequently and drive cars less. Companies that make walking shoes hire workers, while automobile companies lay off workers. This is an example of

The National Labor Relations Board

Most U.S. workers have wages well above the legal minimum, so minimum-wage laws do not prevent the wage from adjusting to balance supply and demand.

Minimum-wage laws are one reason there is always some unemployment in the U.S. economy.

Within the U.S. population, blacks of prime working age (ages 25-54) have similar rates of unemployment than whites of prime working age (ages 25-54), regardless of gender.

Long-run unemployment arises from a single problem that has a single solution.

Unemployment insurance the amount of unemployment.

Discouraged workers are people who want to work but have given up trying to find a job after an unsuccessful search.

Marginally attached workers are people who are

Data on the unemployment rate in the U.S. since 1960 show that the unemployment rate sometimes is close to zero.

Do economists believe that labor unions are good or bad for the U.S. economy?

In the 1990's Ireland made unemployment benefits less generous. This change would likely have reduced

The natural rate of unemployment