Could somebody please help me with my Economic questions?

I have two sections of revision Economic questions which i need help answering. Could someone who has a relatively advanced understanding of Economics help me out?

Reply 1

Superunknown17

Original post by Sicario

I have two sections of revision Economic questions which i need help answering. Could someone who has a relatively advanced understanding of Economics help me out?

Gonna need your question if you want help answering them.

Reply 2

Sicario

Original post by Superunknown17

Gonna need your question if you want help answering them.

Section B
Labour Market Indicators

Figures for employment and unemployment give an incomplete picture of the state of the labour market. Just because a person is employed, that does not mean that they are working the number of hours they would like.

Some people would like to work more hours, either by working more hours in their current job, or by switching to an alternative job with more hours or by taking on an additional part-time job. Such people are classed as ‘underemployed’. On average, underemployed workers wanted to work an additional 11.3 hours per week in 2014. Underemployment is a measure of slack in the labour market, but it is not picked up in the unemployment statistics.

Other people would like to work fewer hours (at the same hourly rate), but feel they have no choice – usually because their employer demands that they work long hours. Some, however, would like to change to another job with fewer hours even if it involved less pay. People willing to sacrifice pay in order to work fewer hours are classed as ‘overemployed’.

Zero-hours and short-hours contracts have become more prevalent in the UK labour market. Zero-hours are contracts offering no assurance of minimum working hours per week and have increased by 114,000 since 2013 to 700,000 in 2014. Furthermore the Trade Unions Congress estimated that in 2014 there were 820,000 workers in the UK employed on short-hours contracts, which guarantee as little as 1 working hour per week. These contracts have gained popularity amongst employers as a means of avoiding paying national insurance contributions for individuals if working less than 18 hours per week.

Statistics released by the Office for National Statistics show that 9.9%, or 3.0 million, workers in the UK were underemployed in 2014; and 9.7%, or 2.9 million, were overemployed. The table figures for underemployment vary between different groups:

11.0% of female workers
8.9% of male workers

19.6% of 16-24 year olds
9.9% of all workers

21.1% of people in elementary occupations (e.g. cleaners, shop assistants and security guards)
5.4% of people in professional occupations (e.g. doctors, teachers and accountants)

11.5% of people in the North East of England (in 2013)
9.2% of people in the East of England (in 2013)

22.1% of part-time workers
5.4% of full-time workers

Meanwhile, doctors, dentists, psychologists, chief executives and senior police officers are the most likely to want shorter hours. They are also older: the proportion of over-50s who are overemployed has risen since 2008 while overemployment rates have fallen for all younger age groups. However, the number of workers seeking to cut their hours has been increasing since the middle of last year across all sectors, the ONS said.

The fact that there is still significant underemployment suggests that there is still considerable slack in the labour market and that this may be acting as a brake on wage increases. On the other hand, the large numbers of people who consider themselves overemployed, especially among the professions and older workers, suggests that many people feel that they have not got the right work–life balance and many may be suffering consequent high levels of stress.

Section B Questions

1. With reference to the table on the previous page, what explanations are there for the differences in the underemployment rate across the five groups? (15 marks)

2. Why would overemployment be primarily a problem for professional people and older people? (8 marks)

3. Suppose that you are working as an economic advisor to the Government. How might you suggest the problem of underemployment be tackled? (15 marks)

Could somebody please help me with my Economic questions?

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