Below are two graphs; the left hand one of percent change in Florida’s total non-agricultural employment compared to a year earlier, the right hand one of Florida and US unemployment rates [seasonally adjusted]. [Note: Sorry, but I cannot paste the graphs into this document because they are from a pdf file; if you want to see the graphs again, follow this link

ftp://207.156.40.162/Press/trends.pdf

You will need to have an Adobe Acrobat reader to open it]
 
 

1. When was the last recession in Florida? In the U.S.?

Graphs make it look like 1991 and 1992

2. Would you say the recession was worse or less bad in Florida than in the US as a whole? Why?

Looks like it was worse in Florida -- the Florida unemployment rate was higher than the US throughout 1991 and1992 according to the graphs
 
 

3. Looking at the graphs, in the middle six months of 1992

a. is Florida employment (growing) [not declining] ?

b. is Florida’s unemployment rate [not rising, not falling]  (unchanged)?

c. how come?

Not many got the point here, although some had trouble interpreting the graphs. The question was intended to be interpreted, "how come employment was growing but the unemployment rate, according to the graphs, was not changing?" The presumed answer I was hoping for was, "people must have been entering or reentering the labor force, so that employment could be going up at the same time as the unemployment rate was staying the same." The point was to remind people that there are three possible classifications, 'employed,' 'unemployed,' and 'not in the labor force,' and employment can grow because people move into the labor force, as well as because people move from unemployed to employed.