Jessica Hopkins

Dr. Kassens

ECON 122

Friday, April 18, 2014

Trends and Differences of the Major Labor Market Statistics

            On April 4, 2014, the Bureau of Labor Statistics in the U.S. Department of Labor (BLS) released the March Employment Situation Report. This report states the different unemployment rates for the month of March that was found through a series of surveys. There were three major labor market statistics that were described in this report. They were unemployment rate, employment population ratio, and the labor force participation rate.

            Mankiw (2012) defines the unemployment rate as “the percentage of the labor force that is unemployed” (p. 299). He states that the entire adult population along with breaking it down in groups such as blacks, whites, men, and women unemployment rates was recorded by the BLS. According to the BLS (2014), the unemployment rate for March was 6.7% (p. 1). This remained unchanged from the previous unemployment rate. However, the BLS (2014) also states that the unemployment rate in March for adult women has increased to 6.2% whereas for adult men it has decreased 6.2% (p. 1). The BLS (2014) then recorded the unemployment rates of smaller groups in the populations. For example, the unemployment rate for teenagers was 20.9%, whites was 5.8%, blacks was 12.4%, Hispanics was 7.9% and Asians was 5.4% unemployed (p.1). These rates were just changed a little bit from the previous rates. For the long-term unemployment rate, the BLS (2014) states that the rates have actually decreased by 837,000 people (p. 2).

            The employment population ratio is the amount of employed people over the entire population. According to the BLS (2014) the employment ratio has actually increased by 58.9% (p. 2). The BLS also says that this number has only changed within the month. Therefore, this shows that the economy is becoming better in its economy because the employment rate is slowly rising.

            Mankiw (2012) also defines the labor force participation rate as “the percentage of the adult population that is in the labor force” (p. 299). According to the BLS (2014) the labor force participation rate was 63.2% in March. This was just a little change over the previous recorded rate.

            Ultimately, the unemployment rate, employment population ratio, and the labor force participation rate have not greatly changed since the last time they were recorded. However, the amount that the rates and ratio have changed has been a positive change. This means that the economy is slowly improving since the U.S. is using more of its resources in its workforce. Since the rates and ratio has already improved in the month of March, it is anticipated that the rates and ratio will continue to do so for the rest of 2014.

  

References

Bureau of Labor Statistics (2014). The employment situation – March 2014. U. S. Department of Labor. http://www.bls.gov/news.release/pdf/empsit.pdf

Mankiw, G. N. (2012). Principles of macroeconomics. Mason, OH: South-Western Cengage Learning.