Question

Suppose there are 100 million in the labor force, and 6 million unemployed people. During the next month, 200,000

people lose their jobs and 300,000 find jobs. The new total of employed persons is ________ and the new unemployment
rate is ________.
A) 100.1 million; 5.8 percent
B) 100 million; 6.1 percent
C) 93.9 million; 6.1 percent
D) 94.1 million; 5.9 percent

Answer 1

The new total of employed persons is 94.1 million, and the new unemployment rate is 5.9 percent.

Step-by-step explanation:

To solve this problem, we start with the initial numbers provided: a labor force of 100 million people and 6 million unemployed persons. When 200,000 people lose their jobs and 300,000 find jobs, the net change in employment is an increase of 100,000 jobs (300,000 - 200,000). This means that the new total number of employed persons is the original labor force minus the original number of unemployed persons plus the net change in employment, which is 100 million - 6 million + 0.1 million = 94.1 million employed persons. To find the new unemployment rate, we subtract the number of people who found jobs from the original number of unemployed and add the number who lost jobs: 6 million - 0.3 million + 0.2 million = 5.9 million unemployed persons. The unemployment rate is the number of unemployed persons divided by the total labor force, which is 5.9 million / 100 million = 5.9 percent. Therefore, the correct answers are D) 94.1 million employed persons and D) 5.9 percent unemployment rate.