Test your knowledge of labor economics and related statistics. These questions are based on recent BLS news releases and other publications, especially those featured in The Editor's Desk.
Complete the statement with foreign born or native born:
In 2011, there were 24.4 million foreign-born persons (persons who reside in the United States but who were born outside the country or one of its outlying areas to parents who were not U.S. citizens) in the U.S. labor force. The unemployment rate for the foreign born was 9.1 percent in 2011; the jobless rate of the native born was 8.9 percent. Overall, the unemployment rates of the foreign born in younger age groups (ages 16 to 34) tend to be lower than the jobless rates for the native born. Among older workers (ages 35 and up), unemployment rates of the foreign born tend to be higher than for the native born.
Complete these sentences with the correct occupations from the list:
In 2011, women accounted for 47 percent of all employed persons 16 years of age and older. The share of women in specific occupations varied: 14 percent of architects and engineers and 34 percent of physicians and surgeons were women, whereas 61 percent of accountants and auditors and 82 percent of elementary and middle school teachers were women.
Complete the statement with the correct percentages:
Among married-couple families with children under 18 years of age, 95.8 percent had an employed parent in 2011. The share of married-couple families where both parents worked edged up to 58.5 percent in 2011. The share of married-couple families where the father was employed (and the mother was not) was 30.4 percent; the share where the mother was employed (and the father was not) was 6.9 percent.
Complete the statement with names of two BLS surveys:
The Bureau of Labor Statistics has two monthly surveys that measure employment levels and trends and provide estimates of employment that are published in the Employment Situation news release each month: the Current Employment Statistics survey (also known as the payroll or establishment survey) and the Current Population Survey (also known as the household survey).
Complete the statement with the number (in millions) and percentage of "working poor":
In 2010, there were 10.5 million individuals classified as "working poor" (persons who spent at least 27 weeks in the labor force—that is, working or looking for work—but whose incomes still fell below the official poverty level). The working-poor rate—the ratio of the working poor to all individuals in the labor force for at least 27 weeks—was 7.2 percent.
Complete the statement in the blanks with the correct state names:
In 2010, 3.1 million jobs in the United States (2.4 percent of total U.S. employment) were associated with producing green goods and services that benefit the environment or conserve natural resources. Among the states, Vermont had the highest percentage of its total employment in GGS jobs, at 4.4 percent, followed by the District of Columbia at 3.9 percent, Idaho at 3.7 percent, and Alaska and Maryland (3.6 percent each).
Do Young male veterans have a higher or lower unemployment rate than their nonveteran counterparts?:
Young male veterans (those ages 18 to 24) who served during Gulf War era II (veterans who served on active duty in the U.S. Armed Forces at any time since September 2001) had an unemployment rate that was higher than that of young male nonveterans (17.6 percent).
Complete the statement with the correct phrase from the list below:
In 2009, security guards suffered 63 fatal work injuries. The rate of fatal workplace injuries to security guards (7.4 per 100,000 full-time equivalent workers) was more than twice that of workers in general.
Complete the statement with the correct percentage:
In 2011, workers who earned exactly the prevailing Federal minimum wage of $7.25 per hour or had wages below the minimum together made up 5.2 percent of the 73.9 million American workers age 16 and over who were paid hourly rates.
Complete the statement with the correct value for the CPI-E:
From December 1982 through December 2011, the all-items index in the experimental CPI-E, the Consumer Price Index for the Elderly, rose at an annual average rate of 3.1 percent, compared with increases of 2.9 percent for both the Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers (CPI-U) and the Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers (CPI-W).
Complete the statement with the correct state names:
In 2011, the employment-population ratio in 23 states was significantly above the U.S. employment-population ratio of 58.4 percent. (The employment-population ratio is the proportion of the civilian noninstitutional population 16 years of age and over that is employed.) Four states in the West North Central division of the country posted the highest ratios: North Dakota, 69.3 percent; Nebraska, 68.5 percent; South Dakota, 68.1 percent; and Minnesota, 67.1 percent. The lowest employment-population ratio among the states, 49.5 percent, was reported in West Virginia.
Complete the statement with the occupational groups projected to add the most new jobs:
From 2010 to 2020, the U.S. economy is projected to add 20.5 million new jobs. Office and administrative support occupations is the occupational group projected to add the most new jobs, 2.3 million. Healthcare practitioners and technical occupations are projected to add 2.0 million new jobs from 2010 to 2020, the second most of any major group.
Use decrease or increase to complete the statement:
In 2011, there were 19 major strikes and lockouts involving 1,000 or more workers lasting at least one shift. These work stoppages idled 113,000 workers for 1.02 million lost workdays. The 2011 numbers represented a large increase compared to 2010.
Complete the statement with the correct percentages:
In 2011, the union membership rate—the percent of wage and salary workers who were members of a union—was 11.8 percent, essentially unchanged from 2010. In 1983, the first year for which comparable union data are available, the union membership rate was 20.1 percent.
Complete the statement with the types of retail establishments:
Nearly two-thirds of all homicides in the retail trade sector during the 2003–2008 period occurred in two types of retail establishments: food and beverage stores and gasoline stations.
Complete the statement with the correct percentage:
In 2010, there were 123 million women in the civilian noninstitutional population, and of this number 72 million, or 58.6 percent, were in the labor force—that is, classified as either employed or unemployed. Women's labor force participation is significantly higher today than it was in the 1970s. Women's labor force participation rate peaked at 60.0 percent in 1999, following several decades in which women increasingly participated in the labor market.
Complete the statement with the correct percentage:
Among those ages 25 and older, 52 percent of Asians in the United States had an educational attainment level of a bachelor's degree or higher in the 2008–2010 period, considerably more than the average of 29 percent for non-Asians.
Complete the statement with the correct multiple and mean annual wage:
The average wage for the highest paying occupational group (management occupations) was nearly five times that of the lowest paying group (food preparation and serving related). Annual mean wages by occupational group ranged from $21,240 for food preparation and serving related occupations to $105,440 for management occupations.
Complete the statement with the correct injuries and illnesses rate:
Nonfatal workplace injuries and illnesses among private industry employers declined in 2010 to a rate of 3.5 cases per 100 equivalent full-time workers—down from 3.6 cases in 2009.
Complete the sentence with the name of the major component of consumer spending that increased the most in 2010 (hint: its level of spending has increased on a year-to-year basis for well over a decade):
Spending on food and housing fell 3.8 percent and 2.0 percent, respectively, contributing to the overall drop in spending in 2010. Healthcare (+1.0 percent) and transportation (+0.2 percent) were the only major components of spending to increase.
Complete the statement with the correct number of industries:
Multifactor productivity—defined as output per unit of combined inputs—increased in only 12 of the 86 four-digit NAICS manufacturing industries in 2009. This was down from 2008, when multifactor productivity increased in 36 of those 86 industries.
Complete the statement with the correct percentages for the occupational groups:
In March 2010, 69 percent of all private industry workers had access (ability to receive benefits) to outpatient prescription drug coverage. Outpatient prescription drug coverage varied widely by worker characteristics: 85 percent of private industry workers in management, professional, and related occupations had access to outpatient prescription drug coverage—nearly double the access rate of private industry workers in service occupations, which was 44 percent.
Complete the statement with the correct dollar values (chosen from the list below):
In 2010, median usual weekly earnings of Asian men ($1,408) and White men ($1,273) working full time in management, professional, and related occupations (the highest paying major occupation group) were well above the earnings of Hispanic men ($1,002) and Black men ($957 ) in the same occupation group.
During 2010, men's unemployment rates were higher than women's in Canada, Germany, Sweden, the United Kingdom, and the United Sates, while the opposite was true in Australia, France, Italy and Japan.
Complete the statement with the correct percentage:
In July 2011, the employment-population ratio for youth—the proportion of the 16- to 24-year old civilian noninstitutional population that was employed—was 48.8 percent, a record low for the series, though only marginally lower than in July 2010. (The month of July typically is the summertime peak in youth employment.)
Complete the statement with the correct women's-to-men's earnings ratio:
The women's-to-men's earnings ratio among 25- to 34-year-olds rose from 68 percent in 1979 to 91 percent in 2010, and the ratio for 45- to 54-year-olds increased from 57 percent to 77 percent.
