Page 1 of 5
Krista A Scott
ECO2013
Essay 1
04/02/2016
Unemployment
Introduction –
I believe more needs to be done with regards to Unemployment and the consideration of
the labor force across the United States. I think the unemployment “rate” gives a false reading of
those who are truly unemployed. Currently as published by the Bureau of Labor Statistics on the
1st of April 2016 the unemployment nationally is 5.0% as of March 2016. However because of
how they define and calculate the unemployment rate and unemployed persons, which we will
discuss later on, I don’t think that is a true number of those unemployed. This should be a major
concern for the public as it shows false hope in how the economy is actually doing.
Researched Articles –
We will first discuss how the unemployment rate is actually calculated. According to a
publication, by the Bureau of Labor Statistics on the 8th day of October 2015, they survey people
very similar to that of the Census that is done every 10 years. However because this is calculated
monthly doing a full survey of everyone in in the United States is not logistically possible. For
the monthly survey they take a sample of approximately 60,000 households from across the
United States from many different demographical areas and backgrounds. Every month 1/4th of
the households survey changes. Doing this survey the people are not directly asked if they are
working or not. They are asked a series of questions which are then put into a computer who
decides whether these people are unemployed or not.
There is one article I also found that I think gives incite to one problem close to home
that is causing such a discrepancy in these numbers. According to an article written by Marcia
Heroux Pounds titled “Florida’s unemployment system drawing complaints” with the
Page 2 of 5
Krista A Scott
ECO2013
Essay 1
04/02/2016
Unemployment
SunSentinel on the 10th of October 2015 there are some major problems with Florida’s
unemployment system. As of late there has been some serious problems with unemployed
Floridians not being able to get their benefits due to its lack of user friendliness and other
problems. Florida’s unemployment system has been labeled as “virtually inaccessible.”
On top of the online system not working properly when people call to resolve problems
with applying online they often can’t get through to a live person to resolve issues either. The
system is so complicated that often most people just give up on applying for benefits and or look
