Total Population: 319.9
Civilian Non-Institutional Population (16+): 249.0 Children, Soldiers, and Inmates: 70.9
Labor Force: 156.1 Not in the Labor Force: 92.9
Employed: 147.4 Unemployed: 8.7

This table reports population numbers (in millions) for the U.S. in December 2014. Based on these numbers, what is the unemployment rate?

Question

Total Population: 319.9
Civilian Non-Institutional Population (16+): 249.0	Children, Soldiers, and Inmates: 70.9
Labor Force: 156.1	Not in the Labor Force: 92.9
Employed: 147.4	Unemployed: 8.7

This table reports population numbers (in millions) for the U.S. in December 2014. Based on these numbers, what is the unemployment rate?

BlackTom AI · Accepted Answer

We start by restating the given data and the question to be answered. The table provides unemployment data for December 2014: Unemployed = 8.7 million and Labor Force = 156.1 million. The unemployment rate is defined as Unemployed divided by Labor Force, expressed as a percentage.

Option 1: 2.72%.
To get this value, one would have to compute 2.72% of the labor force and compare to the unemployed. 2.72% of 156.1 million is about 4.24 million, which does not match the reported unemployed of 8.7 million. This option underestimates the unemployment rate and misuses the ratio.

Option 2: 3.49%.
If we take 3.49% of 156.1 million, we get roughly 5.44 million unemployed, still far below the given 8.7 million. This indicates an incorrect calculation or misinterpretation of the numerator/denominator.

Option 3: 5.57%.
Compute the unemployment rate as Unemployed 8.7 million divided by Labor Force 156.1 million: 8.7 / 156.1 ≈ 0.0558, which equals about 5.58%. When rounded to two decimals, this is approximately 5.58%, which is very close to 5.57% and aligns with the standard definition of the unemployment rate. This option is consistent with the provided numbers, given typical rounding.

Option 4: 9.36%.
A rate of 9.36% would imply a much larger number of unemployed relative to the labor force (9.36% of 156.1 million is about 14.6 million), which is not consistent with the reported unemployed (8.7 million). This option overstates the unemployment rate based on the given data.

Overall, the correct interpretation hinges on using unemployment divided by labor force and then expressing as a percentage, which leads to a value near 5.58%. The options that yield values far from this, specifically 2.72%, 3.49%, and 9.36%, are not consistent with the reported numbers. The 5.57% choice corresponds most closely to the calculation results and standard rounding behavior.

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