Apply the Principle The Phillips Curve

ECO 100 Apply Principle: Phillips CurveĀ 

Using data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, what is the current level of unemployment?

When visiting the Bureau of Labor Statistics website under the employment situation summary, I noticed the month and year that was summarized was January 2017. I saw the month and year that was synthesized was January 2017. The unemployment rate for that month was 4.8%, which is a low number for unemployment. There was little change from the previous monthā€™s unemployment rate. Many factors make it difficult to determine the unemployment rate.

Measuring the unemployment rate means first determining who is eligible and available to work. The total U.S. population divided into three groups. One group is made up of people under the age of 16. This group also includes those who are institutionalized. The second group is adults who are When factoring the unemployment rate, there are numerous factors. Women, teenagers, blacks, Hispanics, and whites. Overall teenagers make up themore significantportion of the unemployment rate at 15% of teenagers being unemployed. Blacks were the next highest unemployment rate at 7.7% with Hispanics behind them at 5.9%. Women and whites are the lowest of the unemployment rate. Whites are 4.3%, and women are at 4.4% unemployed. Again, there was little change over the past month with these rates.

A potential worker but for some reason are not seeking work.This group is labeled ā€œnot in the labor force.ā€ And the third group is the labor force. These are people who are either employed or those who are unemployed but not actively seeking work.

Unemployment is a significant economic problem. Unemployment is seen as a loss of income. If the people arenā€™t making money than they are unable to put money back in our economy. We need money to make money. There are also non-economic effects of unemployment. Those who are unemployed may easily get depressed and have a sense of failure. And those around them may feel the same way. And start to have resentment to those unemployed. The unemployed can seem like a burden to some.

We all lose from unemployment. Those who are unemployed are losing money and the skills required for jobs. Workers and taxpayers are losing money by funding state assistance for those unemployed who need help. And our economy is failing because we are not putting the money back into the economy.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics (2017, February 1). Consumer Price Index FAQs. Retrieved from https://www.bls.gov/cpi/cpifaq.htm

The Bureau of Labor Statistics (2017, March 15). Economic News Release, Consumer Price Index Summary. Retrieved from https://www.bls.gov/news.release/cpi.nr0.htm

CNBC (2016, December 13). Personal Finance. Retrieved from http://www.cnbc.com/2016/12/13/us-households-now-have-over-16k-in-credit-card-debt.html

Using the data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, what is the current level of inflation?

I went to The Bureau of Labor Statistics Web Site under the Consumer Price Index Summary for the following information. The Consumer Price Index (CPI) is a measure of theaverage change over time in the prices paid by the urban consumer for a market basket of consumer goods and services.The CPU is the Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers.

The report is from February 2017. The CPIU for February 2017 was 202.416. The CPI-U increased 0.1% in February 2017. The February increase was the smallest one month rise in the seasonally adjusted all items index since July 2016.Of all of the categories, the Electricity category and the energy services increased the most. Electricity risen from 0.0 to 0.8 and energy services increase from 0.3 to 1.0.

Who loses from inflation? I believe most of us fail from inflation if not all of us. Historically high inflation has hurt the economy. The first impact is the consumers. High rise makes prices soar, and for the average person on a set salary, this will make a significant impact on them. Another way the ā€œaverageā€ person will feel the effects pretty quickly is higher interest rates on credit cards. The total credit card debt per average U.S. household is $16,748.With that said most credit cards have a variable interest rate tied to a primary index like the prime rate. Because of this credit card holders will experience quickly climbing rates during inflation.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics (2017, February 1). Consumer Price Index FAQs. Retrieved from https://www.bls.gov/cpi/cpifaq.htm

The Bureau of Labor Statistics (2017, March 15). Economic News Release, Consumer Price Index Summary. Retrieved from https://www.bls.gov/news.release/cpi.nr0.htm

CNBC (2016, December 13). Personal Finance. Retrieved from http://www.cnbc.com/2016/12/13/us-households-now-have-over-16k-in-credit-card-debt.html

Are these high or low compared to the historical averages of the United States?

In the charts and tables above retrieved from gpo.gov, the unemployment rates were dramatically high in In the second set of tables and charts which is the unemployed by duration and reason as one would assume from looking at the previousmap, 2009 had an incredibly significant amount of persons unemployed. This is the same for both tables; there was a dramatic jump from 2008 to 2009. The lowest number of those unemployed from 2000 to now is still in the year 2000. Although if you look at the table ā€œCivilian Unemployment Rateā€ you will notice in 2001 the unemployment rate was at 4.7% which is very close to the 4.6% unemployment rate in November of 2016. But looking at the table ā€œUnemployed by duration and reasonā€ the total amount unemployed in 2001 was 6,801 people while in November 2016 the total number of people is 7,400. One thing I did notice on the table ā€œUnemployment by duration and reasonā€ is that the reason for unemployment, the ā€œjob leaversā€ category has steadilyrisenoverthe years.

2010 at 9.6%. As you can see the unemployment rate started rising in 2008. That is when it took a massive jump from 5.8% to 9.3% unemployed. Since 2000, the lowest unemployment rate has been 4% as you can see in November 2016 we are getting very close to that levelrate.

Overall the trend seems to be males 16-19 years old are the highest unemployed. Overall, according to the charts and tables our unemployment rate is moving in the right direction. And those who are unemployed are staying unemployed for less time than before. Since demographic studies show that the proportion of teenagers and minorities in the U.S. population islikely to increaseshortly,I believe this could have a negative impact on our unemployment rate. As stated the tables above show that the majority of unemployed are those under the age of 20.

Place an Order

Plagiarism Free!

Scroll to Top