Man, Women and Family Work

Question 1: Suppose that you have Population: 100,000 Unemployed: 3,000 Employed: 60,000 Not in labor force: 37,000

a. The size of the labor force:
Labor force: all individuals 16 years of age and over who work for pay or profit or actively seek paid employment
Employed + Unemployed= 60000+3000=63000

The labor force participation rate:
=N. people in L force/ Total N. people= 63000/100000=63%

Unemployed rate:
=N. unemployed/Total N. people= 3000/100000=3%

b. Individuals who would like a job, but did not work during the prior four weeks are classified as not in the labor force. Such as marginally attached workers and discouraged workers.

c. Economic factors: The increase in the labor force attachment of women of the life cycle and the increased commitment to the labor force, the higher education and the technology.

d. If a economic downturn occur, all the number of employed, number of unemployed and the number of “not in the labor force” will decrease, because, if the primary earner becomes unemployed, other family members may enter the labor force, but during the economic downturn, it is difficult to find jobs. Moreover, if people lose their jobs, it is possible they may become discouraged and drop out of the labor force. Question 2:
Explain why men’s labor force participation decreased. Why do same factor not cause the decline of women’s participation?
The decline in the participation rate s of the younger men is mainly due to their tendency to remain in school longer. It is reflects the increase skills demanded by advanced economy. Also, with rising real incomes, families are able to keep their children in school longer not only because they can better afford to pay the bills but also because they can better afford to forgo the contribution their children might otherwise make to family income. The long-term of older males is often viewed as evidence of the dominance of the income effect over the substitution effect. The increased propensity of men to retire at earlier age is also seen as part of another reason. Finally ,with the growth of service employment and shifts in the nature of jobs in the manufacturing sector, jobs have become less.
However, in women’s labor force, more women are expected to find that the wage offered them by market exceeds their reservation wage and hence choose to enter the labor force. Also ,the rise of education and experience, although men’s educational attainment has also increased , gender differences in higher education in the general population have narrowed substantially and in fact, since the 1980s, young women have been more likely to graduate collage than men. Furthermore, the demand of labor market and female as well as workers benefited from increased in labor productivity.

Question 6:
Do you expect that sometime in the future labor force participation rates for men and women will be equal?

It is probably happen in the future. The Bureau of Labor Statistic projects that the participation rate of adult women will remain roughly constant at 59 percent in 2016. The male participation rate is expected to fall slightly to 72 percent. As women continue to accumulate more market-oriented education and increasingly enter nontraditional fields with higher earnings, their incentives to enter and remain in the labor force should continue to grow. Also, there are two main reasons may cause the decline of men’s labor force participation in the future. First, it is concern about the decline in participation of less-educated prim age men, to the extent that this decline is caused by a decrease in labor market opportunities for them. Second, employment difficulties remain a particularly serious concern for African-American men