Question

Inflation and Unemployment

Question

TheAustralian BureauofStatistics(ABS)r eportedinMay2017thatthecivilian population in Australia over 15 years of age was 20.8 million.
Of this population of 20.8 million Australians, 13.5 million were employed and 0.7 million were unemployed.
Calculate Australia’s labor force and the number of people in the civilian population who were not in the labor force? Also, with examples examine the causes of structural unemployment in Australia

Answer 1

Population over 15 years =20.8 million

Employed = 13.5 million

Unemployed = 0.7 million

Labor force = Employed person + unemployed person

Labor force = 13.5 + 0.7

Labor force = 14.2 million

Number of person who are not in labor force = Population- labor force

= 20.8 million - 14.2 million

Number of person who are not in labor force = 6.6 million

Structural unemployment occurs when the mismatch between the skills that worker have and skills demanded by the employers in the market. Like technology change same incident happened in Australia due to technological changes mismatch between the jobs that are available and the people looking for work. This mismatch could be because jobseekers don’t have the skills required to do the available jobs and due to this share of employment decline and unemployment occur in the economy and that unemployment is structural unemployment.