The unemployment rate is a key economic indicator but comparing unemployment rates of today to unemployment rates of the past does not give a completely accurate picture of economic performance. One reason is that demographic changes in the labor force can affect the overall unemployent rate. This study examines changes in the demographic composition of the labor force and estimates how demographic factors have affected the unemployment rate from 1950 to 1980. This estimation allows the actual unemployment rate to be corrected for demographic influences. / Using micro census data of population and housing from the four census years 1950, 1960, 1970 and 1980 and ordinary least squares analysis the unemployment rate was estimated to have increased from 0.419 to 0.552 percentage points as a result of the changing demographic composition of the labor force. The independent variables used to explain the changes in the natural rate were sex, race, marital status, age, classification of worker, presence of a spouse also in the labor force, and veteran status. / Also estimated was the impact on the natural rate of unemployment from an influx of workers into the labor force over time. That impact was estimated to have increased the unemployment rate by 0.766 percentage points from 1950 to 1980. Those two factors caused the unemployment rate to be 1.185 to 1.318 percentage points higher in 1980 than in 1950. / The dissertation also analyzed the unemployment probabilities of individual subgroups of the economy to see how those probabilities differ. Logit analysis was used on micro census data but for subsamples of whites only and blacks only. It was found that blacks were almost twice as likely to be unemployed than whites for each of the four census years, ceteris paribus. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 47-07, Section: A, page: 2688. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1986.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:fsu.edu/oai:fsu.digital.flvc.org:fsu_75874 |
| Contributors | HOLCOMBE, LORA HUNT PRITCHETT., Florida State University |
| Source Sets | Florida State University |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Text |
| Format | 229 p. |
| Rights | On campus use only. |
| Relation | Dissertation Abstracts International |
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