Suppose that the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that there were 62 million people over age 25 whose highest level of education was some college or an associate degree. Of these, 45.3 million were employed and 3.6 million were unemployed. What were the labor-force participation rate and the unemployment rate for this group?

Question

Suppose that the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that there were 62 million people over age 25 whose highest level of education was some college or an associate degree. Of these, 45.3 million were employed and 3.6 million were unemployed. What were the labor-force participation rate and the unemployment rate for this group?

BlackTom AI · Accepted Answer

First, identify the key figures given: the population in this group is 62 million, there are 45.3 million employed, and 3.6 million unemployed.
Next, compute the labor force by adding employed and unemployed: 45.3 million + 3.6 million = 48.9 million.
Now, calculate the labor-force participation rate as (labor force / population) × 100 = (48.9 / 62.0) × 100 ≈ 79.0%. Rounding to one decimal place gives 78.9%.
Then determine the unemployment rate as (unemployed / labor force) × 100 = (3.6 / 48.9) × 100 ≈ 7.36%. Rounding to one decimal place gives 7.4%.
With these numbers in mind, evaluate each option:
Option 1: 78.9% and 126.8% — the first figure matches the labor-force participation, but the second is far too large for an unemployment rate; unemployment rates cannot exceed 100% of the labor force in this context, so this is incorrect.
Option 2: 78.9% and 7.4% — both figures align with the calculations above, making this the correct pairing for labor-force participation and unemployment rates.
Option 3: 126.8% and 7.4% — the 126.8% would imply a labor-force participation rate greater than 100%, which is impossible; this option is erroneous.
Option 4: 7.4% and 78.9% — this option swaps the two rates and mislabels them, so it does not reflect the correct order or values.
In summary, the only option that matches the computed labor-force participation rate and unemployment rate is the second one, 78.9% and 7.4%.

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