Unemployment Article Analysis

Name of the Student:
Instructor’s Name:
Subject:
Date:
Unemployment Article Analysis
The article's author argues that the unemployment rate in the U.S. has fallen from the initial 14.8% to 3.9% from April 2020 to December 2022, respectively (Smialek n.p.). As the labor market nears ‘full employment,’ companies realize a relative scarcity of would-be workers. The number of people quitting their jobs is high, job openings are at elevated levels, and workers are hard to find (Smialek n.p.). Unemployment refers to a scenario where individuals capable of working cannot find any opportunity (Britannica n.p.). These would-be workers lack a chance for employment even when actively searching for remunerative work. In the U.S., as the author of the news article states, organizations are struggling to fill their job positions due to increased employment levels of skilled citizens. 
Scarcity as a Key Economic Concept
The scarcity of commodities means that if these services and goods were free, their consumption would surpass supply. A scarce product has a limited supply, but its demand within society is unlimited. 
Diagram and Explanation
Fig. 1: Consumer Supply, Demand
54292599695
5905508890D00D3305175257175S00S
20574003721101933575153035EP020000EPleft48260Price (P)00Price (P)
122872550165Quantity (Q)00Quantity (Q)
Figure 1 above demonstrates the relationship between the quantities (Q) of commodities that consumers wish to purchase, the prices (P) businesses wish to sell, and the quantity available for the buyers. The graph is essential in determining the market price of services and goods. The interaction between demand (D) and supply (S) offers insight into the prices that might be acceptable to the wider population of buyers. Consumers and producers can strike an agreement regarding prices, achieving an equilibrium price (EP). At this point, the quantity of a commodity demanded by buyers equals the quantity that a producer supplies in the market. The graph demonstrates that this is the intersection between supply and demand. Both parties have a common quantity for a determined price in mind, which is referred to as equilibrium quantity. Economic pressures arise when any given market moves away from this state (Britannica n.p.a). These pressures are meant to push the market towards a state of equilibrium. The market mechanism is the term given to this tendency of shifting a market towards a state of balance. While holding others factors like seasonal effects, preferences of consumers, income levels, and prices of alternative products, price is a key determinant of the quantity of a commodity demanded by consumers (Britannica n.p.a). Another aspect of the graph is consumers’ willingness to purchase a product or service heightens with lowered prices. Finally, in scarcity, the prices may be higher due to increased demand and lowered supply.
Evaluation and Conclusion
The above graph of the inflation rate against the unemployment rate has a negative slope. This is because of the inverse relationship between inflation and unemployment (Picardo n.p.). An increase in unemployment would mean that the number of individuals looking for jobs exceeds the available jobs in the labor...