Question

The country of Snowdonia has a total adult population of 10 million, and of these 210 thousand are currently out of work and actively searching for new employment. A further 2.9 million are not working because they are retired, institutionalized, or simply choose not to work i.e. homemakers and full-time students). Finally a total of 100 thousand citizens are currently enlisted with the Snowdonian military.

Assuming the Snowdonian ministry of statistics uses the same unemployment formula as the Statistics Canada, what is Snowdonia's current unemployment rate?
Unemployment Rate:__________.

Answer 1

Unemployment rate is 3%

Step-by-step explanation:

Unemployment is defined as the number of people that are actively searching for employment but are unable to get work.

Unemployment rate = number of unemployed ÷ labour force

In Canada the following people are considered unemployment

-Those that report work that will not start in the next 4 weeks (for example enlisted citizens)

- Those that do not work because of personal responsibility

- Those that only passively search for jobs

In the give scenario enlisted citizens are considered unemployed because they are not in active service in the next 4 weeks.

Unemployed = 210,000 + 100,000 = 310,000

Unemployment rate = 310,000 ÷ 10,000,000 = 3%

Answer 2

Unemployment rate = 3%

Step-by-step explanation:

The unemployment rate is defined as the percentage of the labour force that is currently unemployed. An individual is said to be unemployed if he/she is a part of the labour force and does not have a full-time or part-time job, is actively searching for a job (within the last four weeks) and is available to be hired or an individual that has been temporarily laid off.

The formula for calculating the unemployment rate is:

(number of unemployed ÷ labour force) × 100

First, let us determine the labour force of Snowdonia as follows:

Total population = 10,000,000

Population unable to work = retired, institutionalized and those in the military

∴ population unable to work = 2,900,000 + 100,000 = 3,000,000

Labour force = Total population - population unable to work

Labour force = 10,000,000 - 3,000,000 = 7,000,000

Unemployed population = 210,000

∴ Unemployment rate = (unemployed population ÷ labour force) × 100

unemployment rate = (210,000 ÷ 7,000,000) × 100

= 0.03 × 100 = 3

∴ Unemployment rate = 3%