Marginal URLs:

• p. 170: Go to http://www.imf.org/external/pubs/pubs/per.htm to obtain information about inflation and unemployment in other coutries from the International Monetary Fund. Click on "World Economic Outlook Databases."
• p. 175: Go to http://www.nber.org/cycles/recessions.html to learn about how economists at the National Bureau of Economic Research formally determine when a recession is under way.

• To learn about how the BLS computes quality-adjusted prices of audio electronic products, go to http://www.bls.gov/cpi/cpiaudio.htm.
• For a discussion of how the BLS performs quality adjustments when evaluating the prices of college textbooks, go to http://www.bls.gov/cpi/cpictb.htm.

Looking at the Unemployment and Inflation Data

This chapter reviewed key concepts relating to unemployment and inflation. In this application, you get a chance to examine U.S. unemployment and inflation data on your own.

Title: Bureau of Labor Statistics: Employment and Unemployment

Navigation: Use the link http://www.bls.gov/data/top20.htm visit the "Employment & Unemployment" page of the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). Click on Labor Force Statistics from the Current Population Survey.

Application: Perform the indicated operations, and answer the following questions:

1. Click checkmarks in the boxes for Civilian Labor Force, Employment Level, and Unemployment Level. Retrieve the data. Can you identify periods of sharp cyclical swings? Do they show up in data for the labor force, employment, or unemployment?

2. Are cyclical factors important?

For Group Study and Analysis
Divide the class into groups, and assign a price index to each group. Ask each group to take a look at the index for All Years at the link to the BLS statistics on inflation at http://www.bls.gov/bls/inflation.htm. Have each group identify periods during which their index accelerated or decelerated (or even fell). Do the indexes ever provide opposing implications about inflation and deflation?

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