Test your knowledge of labor economics and related statistics. These questions are based on recent BLS news releases and other publications.
Use increase or decrease to fill in the blank:
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.
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.
Fill in the blanks 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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Fill in the blank 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.
Fill in the blank 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.
Fill in the blank 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.
Fill in the blanks with the correct dollar values:
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.
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.)
Fill in the blanks 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.
On the days that they worked, 24 percent of employed persons did some or all of their work at home, and 83 percent did some or all of their work at their workplace. (Individuals may have worked at more than one location. "Working at home" includes any time persons did work at home and is not restricted to persons whose usual workplace is their home.)
About 6 percent of U.S. employment (nearly 8 million jobs) was in STEM occupations—97 specific technical occupations in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics— in May 2009.
Fill in the blanks with the two correct occupations from the list below:
Retail salespersons and cashiers were the occupations with the highest employment in 2010. These two occupations combined made up nearly 6 percent of total U.S. employment, with employment levels of 4.2 and 3.4 million, respectively.
Cashiers
Combined food preparation and serving workers, including fast food
The labor force participation rate (the proportion of the population working or looking for work) for
recent high school graduates enrolled in college was 40.0 percent. Recent high school graduates not enrolled in college in the fall of 2010 were more likely to be in the labor force; the labor force participation rate of recent high school graduates not enrolled in college in the fall of 2010 was 76.6 percent.
Of the 3.2 million youth age 16 to 24 who graduated from high school between January and October 2010, about 2.2 million (68.1 percent) were enrolled in college in October 2010.
