Question

Suppose the town of Boone has a total population of 60,000 people. Of those, 56,000 people are employed. There are 2,000 full-time students who are not employed or actively seeking work. The rest of the people are out of work but have been actively seeking work within the past four weeks. What is Boone's unemployment rate?

Answer 1

Boone's unemployment rate is calculated as the number of unemployed persons divided by the total labor force, yielding approximately 3.45%.

Step-by-step explanation:

To calculate Boone's unemployment rate, we need to consider only those people who are part of the labor force. The labor force includes those who are employed and those who are unemployed but actively seeking employment. In Boone, 56,000 people are employed and full-time students not seeking work do not count towards the labor force. The rest are unemployed and seeking work.

Labor Force = Employed + Unemployed actively seeking work

Total population = 60,000
Employed = 56,000
Students not in labor force = 2,000.

The unemployed is the remainder after accounting for employed and students not in the labor force.

Unemployed = Total population - Employed - Students not in labor force
Unemployed = 60,000 - 56,000 - 2,000 = 2,000

Therefore, Labor Force = Employed + Unemployed = 56,000 + 2,000 = 58,000.

Unemployment rate is calculated as the number of unemployed persons divided by the total labor force, multiplied by 100 to get a percentage.

Unemployment rate = (Unemployed / Labor Force) × 100
Unemployment rate = (2,000 / 58,000) × 100 ≈ 3.45%

Thus, Boone's unemployment rate is approximately 3.45%.