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ECONOMIC

Report - The American Presidency Project

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The unemployment rate for adult males would then be about 2 percent. Ifthe labor force consisted of an equal number of young men and adult men,the average unemployment rate would be 6% percent. But if it consisted offive times as many adults as youths, the average rate would be 32/3 percent.This illustrates how changes in the composition of the labor force cangreatly change the overall unemployment rate that is associated with a constantcondition of maximum employment for each group of the labor force.TABLE 7.—Unemployment rates by sex and age, selected years, 1956-73[Percent)Sex and age 1956196519721973All civilian workers:ActualStandardized for age and sex 14.14.14.54.35.64.94.94.1Males:16-19 years20-24 years25-54 years55 years and over.11.16.93.03.514.16.42.73.315.99.23.13.213.97.32.52.5Females:16-19 years20-24 years25-54 years55 years and over.11.26.34.13.315.77.34.32.816.79.34.93.515.28.44.42.81 The standardized rate was computed by assuming that the age-sex composition of the labor force remained unchangedfrom 1956 to 1973.Sources: Department of Labor (Bureau of Labor Statistics), and Council of Economic Advisers.One way of seeing how labor force composition affects the aggregate unemploymentrate is to weight the actual unemployment rates for each agesexgroup by the composition of the labor force at a specific time. If eachage-sex group shown in Table 7 is weighted according to its importancein the labor force in 1956, when unemployment averaged 4.1 percent, onefinds that the overall unemployment rate in 1973 would also have averaged4.1 percent rather than the 4.9 percent actually experienced. This wide dis-TABLE 8.—Composition of the civilian labor force, selected years, 1956—73[Percent]Sex and age 1956196519721973Total civilian labor force100.0100.0100.0100.0Both sexes 16-19 years..6.57.99.39.5Adult women20-24 years25-54 years55 years and over..Adult men20-24 years25-54 years55 years and over..29.43.720.65.264.15.245.613.331.84.521.26.160.26.641.711.934.36.122.16.156.47.738.110.634.66.322.45.955.88.037.810.0Note.—Detail may not add to totals because of rounding.Source: Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics.60

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