literacy rate, jobless rate, inflation rate

jackson6612

I'm not a math student, and am an English learner. So, please reply as simple as possible. Thanks.


I think literacy rate of a certain country is measured by taking the percentage of all educated persons above a defined age. Suppose that the defined age is 15 years, then if the literacy rate is 90% that would mean only 10% of the persons are illiterate.

Suppose, out of this 90%, almost 80% are college educated degree holders. These 80% obviously would like to do only those jobs which fit their 'academic' class. I mean they won't be willing to work at gas stations, as salesmen, etc. Then, who is going to fill these position, assuming there is no inflow of workers from other underdeveloped countries and no 'technological' replacements?

How is inflation rate measured? Is it measured in reference to some 'inflation-less' rate?

Likewise, how is jobless rate measured?

hholzer

Jobless rate = Unemployment rate

Labor Force = The total number of workers, both the employed and unemployed.

Unemployment rate = percentage of labor force that is unemployed

which stated another way:

Unemployment rate = (unemployed)/(labor force) * 100

Inflation rate = percentage rate of change of a price index

Consumer price index = A price index that measures the cost of
a fixed basket of goods chosen to represent the consumption
pattern of a typical consumer.

CPI in Year K = (cost of basket in year K)/(cost of basket in base year) * 100

Further note:
"Here is an example. Suppose a price index in a country was 200 in 1998
and 210 in 1999. Then the inflation rate between 1998 and 1999 was
inflation rate = (210 - 200)/200 = .05 = 5%

In other words, the country experienced a 5 percent inflation rate.
It is important to distinguish between the price level and the inflation rate.
In everyday language, people sometimes confuse the level of prices with inflation.
You might hear someone say inflation is high in San Francisco because
rents for apartments are high, but this is not a correct use of the term inflation.
Inflation refers not to the level of prices, whether they are high or low, but to their percentage change. If rents were high in San Francisco but remained constant over
two years, there would be no inflation in rents there during that time."

Source: Macroeconomics (Principles, Applications, and Tools); O'Sullivan, Sheffrin, Perez