How many really suffer as a result of labor market
problem? This is one of the most critical yet contentious socia; policy
question. In many ways, our social statistic exaggrate the degree of hardship.
Unemployment does not have the same dire consequence today as it did in the
1930’s when most of the unemployed were primary breadwinners, when income and
earnings were usually much colser to the margin of subsistence, and when there
were no countervailing social programs for those failing in the labor market.
Increasing affluence, the rise of families with more than
one wage earner, the growing predominance of secondary earners among the
unemployed, and improved social welfare protection have questionably mitigated
the consequences of joblessness. Earnings and income data also overstate the
dimensions of hardship. Among the milions with hourly earnings at or below the
m inimum wage level, the overwhelming majority are from multiple-earner,
relatively affluent families.
Most of those counted by the poverty statistics are
elderly or handicapped or have family responsibilities which keep them out of
the labor force, so the poverty statistic are by no means an accurate indicator
of labor market pathologies. Yet there also many ways our social statistics
underestimete the degree of labor-market-related hardship. The unemployment
counts exclude the milions of fully employed workers whose wages are also low
that their families remain in poverty.
Low wages and repeated or prolonged unemployment
frequently interact to undermine the capacity for self-support. Since the
number experiencing joblessness at some time during the is several times
thenumber unemployed in any month, those who suffer as a result of forces idleness
can equal or exceed average annual unemployment, even thought only a minority
of the jobless in any month really suffer. For every person counted in the
mounthly unemployment tallies, there is another working part-time because of
the inability to find full-time work, or else outside the labor force but
waiting job.
Finally, income transfers in our country have ways
focused on the elderly, disable, and dependent, neglecting the needs of the
working poor, so that the dramatic expansion of cash and in-kind transfers
doesnt necessarily mean that those failing in the labor market are adequately
protected. As a result of such contradictory evidence, it is uncertain whether
thoe suffering seriously as a result oflabor market problems number in the
hundreds of thousands or the tens of milions and hence, wether high levels of
joblessness can be tolerated or must be countered by job creation and economic
stimilus.
There is only one area of agreement in this debate-that
the existing poverty, employment and ernings statistic are inadequate for one
their primary applications, measuring the consequences of labor market
problems.
1.
Which
of the following is the principal topic of the passage?
a.
What
causes labor market pathologies that result in suffering
b.
Why
income measures are imprecise in measuring degrees of poverty
c.
Which
of the currently used statistical procedures are the best for estimating the
incidence of hardship that is due to unemployment
d.
Where
the areas of degreement are among poverty, employment, and earnings figure
e.
How
social statistic give an unclear picture of the degree of hardship caused by
low wages and insufficient employment opportunuties
2.
The
author uses “labor market problems” to which of the following?
a.
The
overall causes of poverty
b.
Deficiencies
in the training of the works force
c.
Trade
relationship amongproducers of goods
d.
Shortages
of jobs providing adequate income
e.
Strikes
and inadequate supplies of labor
3.
The
author contrasts the 1930’s with the present in order to show that
a.
More
people were unemployed in the 1930’s
b.
Unemployment
now has less severe effects
c.
Social
programs are more needed noww
d.
There
now is a grater propotion of elderly and handicapped people among those in
poverty
e.
Poverty
has increased since the 1930’s
4.
Which
the following proposals best responds to the issues raised by the author?
a.
Innovative
programs using multiple approaches should be set up to reduce the level of
unemployment
b.
A
compromise should be found between the positions of those qho view joblessness
as an evil greater than economic control and those who hold the oppesite view
c.
New
statistical indices should be developed to measure ehe degree to which
unemployment and inadequately paid employment cause suffering
d.
Consideration
should be given to the ways in which statistic can act as partial causes of the
phonemena that they support to measure
e.
That
labor force should that it corresponds to the range pf job vacancies
5.
The
author’s pupose in citing those who are repeatedly unemployed during a
twelve-month period is most probably to show that
a.
There
are several factors that causes the payment of low wages to some members of the
labor forced
b.
Unemployment
statistics can underestimate the hardship resulting from joblessness
c.
Reccurent
inadequacies in the labor market can
exist and can cause hardships for individual workers
d.
A
majority of those who are jobless at any one time to not suffer severe hardship
e.
There
are fewer individuals who are without jobs at some time during a yaer that
would be expected on the basis of mounthly unemployment figures
6.
The
author states that the mitigating effect of social programs involving income
transfers on the income level of low-income people is often not felt by
a.
Te
employed poor
b.
Dependent
childern in single-earner families
c.
Worker
who become disabled
d.
Retired
workers
e.
Full-time
workers who become unemployed
7.
According
to the passage, one factor that causes unemployment and earnings figure to
overpredict the amount of economic hardship is the
a.
Recurrence
of periods of unemployment for a group of low-wage workers
b.
Possibility
that earnings may be received from more than one job per worker
c.
Fact
that unemployment counts dont include those who work for low wages and remain
poor
d.
Estabilishment
of a sistem of record-keepingthat makes it possible to compile poverty
statistics
e.
Prevalence,
among low-wage workers and the unemployed, of members of familis in which
others are employed
8.
The
conclusion stated about the number of people who suffer as a result of forced
idleness depends prmarily on the point that
a.
In
times of high unemployment, there are some people who dont remain unemployed
for long
b.
The
capacity for self-support depends on receiving moderate-to-high wages
c.
Those
in forced idleness include, besides the unemployed, both underemployed part-time
workers and those not actively seeking work
d.
At
different time during the year, different people are unemployed
e.
Many
of those who are affected by unemployment are dependents of unemployed workers
9.
Which
the following, if true, is the best critism of the author’s argument concerning
why poverty statistic cannot properly be used to show the effect of problems in
the labor market
a.
A
short-term increase in the number of those in poverty can indicate a shortage
of jobs because the basic number of those unable to sccept employment remains
approximately constant
b.
For
those who are in poverty as a result of joblessness, there are social programs
available that provide a minimum standard of living
c.
Poverty
statistic dont consistenly agree with earnings statistic, whem each is taken as
a measure of hardship resulting from unemployment
d.
The
elderly and handicapped catagories include many who previosly were employed in
the labor market
e.
Since
the labor market is global in nature, poor workers in one country are competing
with poor workers in another with respect to the level of wages and the
existence of jobs
10. How
many paragraphs in
the passage above?
a.
5
b.
8
c.
9
d.
6
e.
4
Answer:
- E
- D
- B
- C
- B
- A
- E
- D
- A
- D
