Math in the News
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Math in the News Unemployment The Bureau of Labor Statistics provides a wealth of information on employment, unemployment, and other key statistics about the economy. In August, the unemployment rate went down to 8.1% from 8.3% the previous month. In this issue we look at the size of the workforce, which is one of the variables that is often misunderstood.
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The Bureau of Labor Statistics provides a wealth of information on employment, unemployment, and other key statistics about the economy. In August, the unemployment rate went down to 8.1% from 8.3% the previous month. - PowerPoint PPT Presentation
Transcript of Math in the News
Math in the News
Unemployment
The Bureau of Labor Statistics provides a wealth of information on employment, unemployment, and other key statistics about the economy. In August, the unemployment rate went down to 8.1% from 8.3% the previous month.
In this issue we look at the size of the workforce, which is one of the variables that is often misunderstood.
Math in the News
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (www.bls.gov): “The labor force is made up of the employed and the unemployed. The remainder—those who have no job and are not looking for one—are counted as ‘not in the labor force.’”
http://www.bls.gov/cps/cps_htgm.htm#nilf
Math in the News
The statistics for those “not in the labor force” are shown in this table. The numbers are in the thousands.
http://www.bls.gov/news.release/empsit.t01.htm
July Aug. Aug. Apr. May June July Aug.Not in labor force 85,528 86,828 88,311 86,198 88,419 87,958 87,992 88,340
Math in the News
Here is a graph of the data. Notice how the overall trend is an increase in the number not in the labor force.
Math in the News
What do you think the impact is of an increasing number of people not in the labor force? How will it affect the unemployment rate?
