Saturday Quiz – September 19, 2009
Welcome to the billy blog Saturday quiz. The quiz tests whether you have been paying attention over the last seven days.
See how you go with the following five questions. Your results are only known to you and no records are retained.
Dear Bill,
I have an issue with question 5 and I think it is based on the word ‘stable’. Lets say we initially have 100 people in the labour force, 94 are employed, 6 unemployed and there is an unemployment rate of 6%. In the next period, 100 new entrants join the labour force and they all become employed. There are now 200 in the labour force, 194 employed, 6 unemployed and an unemployment rate of 3%. I see the number of unemployed persons as steady, but the unemployment rate unsteady (changed).
Cheers,
Anthony
Dear Anthony
Yes I agree. I have now changed the question wording now so that it reads as I intended and the answer is correct.
So your comment is understood – the original question wording was “The unemployment rate will remain stable if the sum of public and private employment growth is sufficient to absorb the new entrants into the labour force”.
It is now “The unemployment rate will remain stable if the sum of public and private employment growth is equal to the growth in the labour force.” Then the answer is unambiguous.
Thanks for that.
best wishes
bill