Unemployment Rates by Gender and Race

Structure and Requirements

• Analysis This section needs to contain the following discussions based on the data that was gathered and your understanding of unemployment, inflation, GDP, aggregate supply, and aggregate demand, monetary policy, and fiscal policy. o Unemployment: Discuss the trends of unemployment rates over the past 10 years and provide your objective analysis of the changes in unemployment and the current rates. Place extra emphasis on the periods where unemployment was either too high or too low (higher or lower than the natural rate of unemployment). o Inflation: Discuss the trends of inflation rates over the past 10 years and their relationship with GDP growth and decline. Highlight the years that inflation was either higher or lower than usual and state the reason(s). Also state the effect of the high and low rates on GDP. o Wages: Discuss the changes in real wages by major professions or industries and highlight the periods wages declined or rose and state the reason for this unusual change. o Two Issues (your choice): Here you will need to discuss the two unemployment or inflation-related issues. Provide an overview of their trends and use facts to highlight the major changes in their trends and their current statuses. State the reason(s) why you believe these two issues represent a challenge for the economy. • Reflection and Critical Thinking This section needs to cover the following areas. o Connect all of the dots together by relating your above analysis to other areas in the macroeconomy. Basically, you will link changes in unemployment, inflation, wages, and GDP to one another and how they impacted each other during periods of economic decline (recessions) and periods of economic growth (expansion). o Highlight the causes of the two issues that you selected and how they impact the economy negatively and why they do need to be addressed by policy makers. • Solution o State which macroeconomic policy (monetary policy or fiscal policy) that might resolve the issues you highlighted above, and state how this policy could be implemented and why it would solve these problems. o Finally, provide your own solution. Basically, answer the following question. What would you do to solve the macroeconomic issues you addressed if you were in charge of the U.S. economy? State why.