Age and Gender Comparisons

Unemployment rates are caused by many factors, but often those factors reflect upon age and gender differences. The unemployment rates analyzed by age and gender comparisons according to the Census Bureau is combined with the total of employed and unemployed individuals. This allows the workers at the Local Area Unemployment Statistics Program (LAUS) to find the unemployment rate between ages and genders. Then from these results they divide them into categories The categories are 16-19 years old, and 20-24 years old as the first category, and 25-64 years old as the second category, and 65 years old and up as the third age group.

The first category is also split up 16-19, 20-24 year old. The 16-19 category is mainly high school students or recently graduated students. The unemployment rate for this category is about 11%. This is because the younger working ages have less seniority so they are the most likely to get laid off. The 20-24 aged group includes students in college or recent graduates from college. This age group has much higher working numbers of individuals coming and going in the labor force as they are trying to find the right occupation. This age groups unemployment rate is about 8%.

The second category, 25-64 years, has a large range in unemployment rates, but the rates in this category are relatively low. This is because the people in this age group most likely have more experience in the job market and they have more seniority than the younger age groups so they would be the one less likely to be laid off. This unemployment varies but it is mainly in the 5% range.

The final group, the third group, 65 and up, has some of the highest unemployment rates overall. This is because in this age the majority of the people are starting to retire mainly the women with an unemployment rate of 15%. The men are usually still in the labor force because they still want to support their families. According to Elizabeth T. Hill, unmarried women are more likely to stay in the labor force than married women. Also married men are stronger in the labor force so that they can support their families.

The gender of a person has some affect on the labor force and unemployment rates. Women 16 to 21 years old contribute more in the labor force than men in that age range, but from that age on the men are much more in the labor force.

The age and gender of the human race does contribute to the unemployment rates and what will happen in the labor force. There are good reasons why some ages may have smaller unemployment rates and some my have larger but for sure the age and gender play a role in where the unemployment rates will fall.