In January 2015, the Zanzi economy had an unemployment rate of 5.9 percent. In August 2016, the unemployment rate was 8.7 percent.
a. Predict what happened to unemployment between January 2015 and August 2016, if the labour force was constant.
b. In part a, what happened to employment? Explain.
c. Predict what happened to the labour force between January 2015 and August 2016, if unemployment was constant.
d. In part c, what happened to labour force participation rate? Explain.
Do you think that I need to list/describe all or some of the reasons why unemployment may increase, such as a recession, when responding to part a)?
Furthermore, I'm unsure about part d). In part c), I determined whether labour force increases or decreases. In part d), labour force participation rate = labour force / working-age population x 100. I'm not sure how to answer part d) since the working-age population is not given in the question.