Week 6 Case Study: Macroeconomic Analysis: Unemployment
Overview
A high unemployment rate in any economy is a symptom of dysfunctionality in the economy. People need income to be able to consume, and consumption leads to production and production leads to a higher demand for labor (employment), so unemployment is a crucial macroeconomic issue that confronts all modern economies. A lower unemployment rate, however, is not the end of the problem. The type of employment and the price of labor (wages) must be sufficient for consumption (which is the major component of GDP) in the economy to be healthy. If wages are low or if the prices in the economy are high, consumption would be low and thus, production and demand for labor would be low, too. High unemployment rate, high part-time employment rate for economic reasons, low wages, and high inflation could have negative effects on economic growth.
Assignment Description
In this assignment, you need to identify two specific issues related to unemployment. You will study their past trends, provide an overview of their current status, and provide solutions to overcome them. You will use data from the past 10 years, articles, experts’ opinions, and government reports to draw a clear picture of unemployment issues.
- Some areas you might consider are the following (based on gender, education, race, age). Only pick 2 variables from the same category ( U rates for college graduates vs U rates for high school graduates).
- Unemployment rates for women
- Unemployment rates for men
- Unemployment rates among African Americans
- Unemployment rates among Hispanics
- Unemployment rates among Whites
- Unemployment rates among Asians
- Unemployment rates among young college graduates
- Unemployment rate among workers with high school diploma
- Unemployment rate among workers with less than a high school diploma
Your research needs to be structured with consistent and clear thoughts. It also needs to be supported by actual data. Your results need to be based on solid facts. Your conclusion and recommended solution need to be thorough and based on your findings and understanding of macroeconomic challenges and macroeconomic policies.
Writing Style (APA) and Page Number Requirements
- Document Type: MS Word (No PDF)
- Font Type (Choose one below; use the same font consistently throughout the paper):1. Sans serif fonts such as 11-point Calibri, 11-point Arial, or 10-point Lucida Sans Unicode
- Serif fontssuch as 12-point Times New Roman, 11-point Georgia, or normal (10-point) Computer Modern (the default font for LaTeX)
- Spacing: Double
- Number of Pages: Four to seven pages, not counting the separate Title page and the separate References page
Structure and Requirements
Title Page (Required)
- Title of the paper
- Name of the author
- E-mail address of the author
- Class name
- Professor’s name
- Date
Body of the Case Study paper (Five Sections, Required):
There are 5 sections to this Case Study (Introduction, Data, Analysis, Reflection, Solution). You must have 5 section headings in your paper since each section has its own marks/points (see Case Study Rubric document).
- Introduction
Your introduction needs to include the following.
- Include a clear definition of unemployment and who is counted as “unemployed” by economists and government agencies. Define inflation and what causes unemployment and inflation in the economy to increase.
- Briefly provide your understanding of the relationship between GDP growth and/or decline, high/low unemployment, and high/low inflation rates.
- Include a brief description of the two unemployment-related issues that you are going to address in this paper and their importance. Basically, why do you think they are important to research and resolve?
- Data
Sources must be cited. You can find the latest unemployment data at www.bls.gov (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
It is important to obtain your unemployment data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) website. Follow the “Week 6 Guide to Obtaining Graphs for Data Section” provided on this assignment page and in Files.
The Data section requires a total of 4 data pieces (all pieces of data need to be for the past 10 years; a data piece could be a graph or table):
- Two (2) General data pieces: GDP Growth Rate and Unemployment Rate.
- Two (2) Variable data pieces: Two (2) specific unemployment rates based on your variable(s) (gender, race, education, etc.)
Data (graphs or tables) that must be provided in this section:
- GDP: Graph that represents the ten (10) year period of GDP growth rate (percentage). This information is already available on the Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) website. Review the Week 6 Guide to Obtaining Graphs for Data Section document for instructions.
- Unemployment: Data that represents the ten (10) year period of unemployment rate (percentage), which could be obtained from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) website. Review the Week 6 Guide to Obtaining Graphs for Data Section document for instructions.
- Two Unemployment-related Issues: Data that represents the ten (10) year period about the two issues you are going to address. Provide one separate data set (graph or table) for each of the two issues, which could be obtained from the BLS website. Review the Week 6 Guide to Obtaining Graphs for Data



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