Interim: The purpose of our project is to determine the best way for the United States Government to combat the growth of the unemployment rate in the United States. We will be using a TCL program shown to us by our mentor, Dr Hossein Tahani. We will take into account population, minimum wage and tariffs. So far we have been doing research and learning how to use the TCL program.
According to the CIA, the United States is ranked as the 52 of 202 countries for the lowest unemployment rate. We have an Unemployment rate of 5.1%. Andorra is ranked by the CIA as the number 1 in employed citizens; they have an unemployment rate of 0%. On the other side of the token is Nauru with an unemployment rate of 90%. The average for the world is 30%. Our research shows that the unemployment rate changes on a regular basis. As of 2005, New Mexico has an unemployment rate of 4.2%. The worst state in the U.S. is Mississippi with a whopping 7.2%. However, Hawaii only has an unemployment rate of 2.5%. There was a 2.7% change in the national unemployment in between the years of 1970 and 1998. At it’s peak, the unemployment rate was up to 7.2%. Some of the variables that we have found to affect the unemployment rate are the population by ethnicity, tariffs on imports, and the costs of labor. We have also found that the jobs available have large impacts on the unemployment rate. The largest factor in the unemployment rate in the United States of America is the way large corporations outsource jobs to other countries, where labor costs are lower and it is cheap to ship goods back to the United States. We have also noticed that as the population of minorities, more than Caucasians, raises the unemployment rate. Males also have a tendency to be better employed than women. We also have noticed a change in the unemployment rate as the costs of labor increase in the United States.
We believe that our results will indicate that as the population of the United States increases, the government will have to either lower the minimum wage or raise the cost of shipping goods into the country. However, if the government drops the minimum wage, it will make living harder for the average American laborer. On the other hand, if we raise import taxes (tariffs), the burden of these taxes will be added on to the costs of the merchandise that is being sold. These are the results we think we will get from our tests.

Sources:
www.cia.gov
www.bls.gov/lau
www.census.gov
Economic Report of the President published Feb. 1999

Team Members:

Adam Ratzlaff

Sponsoring Teacher: Mike Boyle

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