1. Unemployment and Inflation
How to measure the unemployment rate?
Labor force and the unemployment
How to measure the inflation rate?
Real GDP vs. nominal GDP
Real interest rate vs. nominal interest rate

2. Unemployment
The unemployed are those who are willing and able to work but do not have a job and are actively searching for a job.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) collects monthly survey data to compute the unemployment rate.

3. How the BLS Measures Employment Status

4. Unemployment
Labor force participation rate (LFPR)
Unemployment rate =

5. Problems In Measuring Unemployment
Treatment of involuntary part-time workers
Some economists have suggested that involuntary part-time workers should be regarded as partially employed and partially unemployed.
Treatment of discouraged workers
Individuals who would like to work but, because they feel little hope of finding a job, have given up searching.

6. Types of Unemployment
Unemployment can arise for a variety of reasons, each with its own policy implications
Economists have found it useful to classify unemployment into four different categories
Frictional unemployment
Seasonal unemployment
Structural unemployment
Cyclical unemployment

7. Frictional Unemployment
Short-term joblessness (between jobs or new entrants)
Good match between workers and jobs
With better suited jobs, works would be more productive.

8. Seasonal Unemployment
Joblessness related to changes in weather, tourist patterns, or other seasonal factors.
So, it is short-term and predictable.
To prevent any misunderstandings, government usually reports the seasonally-adjusted rate of unemployment.

9. Structural Unemployment
Joblessness arising from mismatches between workers’ skills and employers’ requirements.
Coal miners, autoworkers, etc.
Generally a stubborn, long-term problem
Often lasting several years or more

10. Cyclical Unemployment
Business cycle – fluctuations in real GDP around its long-run trend.
When the economy goes into a recession and total output falls, the unemployment rate rises.
Since it arises from conditions in the overall economy, cyclical unemployment is a problem for macroeconomic policy.

11. Full Employment A situation where there is no cyclical unemployment
Natural rate of unemployment
Frictional+Seasonal+Structural
In the U.S., it is between 4.5% and 5%.

12. Price Level and Inflation
A measure of average prices of goods and services in the economy
Index numbers
Series of numbers used to track the change of a variable over time: crime index, air pollution index
Most measures of the price level are reported in the form of an index
Dow Jones Index, S&P 500, Consumer Price Index

13. Index Numbers
In general, an index number for any measure is calculated as

14. Index Numbers Create index numbers
Example: the number of traffic accidents in Youngstown, Ohio

15. The Consumer Price Index
An index of the cost, through time, of a representative market basket of goods and services purchased by a typical urban family of four.
The market basket does not include goods and services purchased by businesses, government, and foreigners, but include consumer goods and services currently produced in the U.S. as well as used goods and imported goods and services.
An example in the textbook on page 625

16. From Price Index to Inflation Rate
Changes in price index
Inflation when price level is rising
Deflation when price level is falling, or negative inflation

17. Inflation, Nominal and Real Values
Purchasing power of money – amount of goods and services
Nominal values – measured at current year price
Real values – measured at the base year price
Translate nominal values into real values using the formula

18. Inflation, Nominal and Real Values
Suppose that from December 2004 to December 2005, your nominal wage rises from $15 to $20 per hour
Are you better off?
Real wage formula is as follows

19. Inflation, Nominal and Real Values
An example:

20. Nominal and Real Interest Rate
Interest rate – the cost of borrowing money, express as a percentage of the amount borrowed.
Nominal vs. Real interest rate

21. Redistributive Effect of Inflation
How does inflation redistribute real income?
Inflation hurts those who receive a fixed amount of payment specified in nominal terms
Example: salary specified in a contract
Inflation benefits those who make a fixed amount of payment specified in nominal terms
Examples: mortgage payment, car loan monthly payment

22. Expected vs. Unexpected Inflation
Over any period, percentage change in a real value (%Δ Real) is approximately equal to percentage change in associated nominal value (%Δ Nominal) minus the rate of inflation
%ΔReal = %ΔNominal – Rate of Inflation
If inflation is fully anticipated, and if both parties take it into account, then inflation will not redistribute purchasing power
When inflation is not correctly anticipated, however, inflation does shift purchasing power from one group to another.

23. Expected vs. Unexpected Inflation
An example:
Joe borrows $100 from Mike and promises to pay back the money plus interest in a year. Mike wants to charge a real return of 3%. Meanwhile, Mike expects the inflation rate to be 3% for the next year and Joe expects it to be 5%. So, Joe happily agrees to pay Mike 6% nominal interest rate. If the actual inflation rate is 4%, how will the purchasing power shift between Joe and Mike?