Activity 4: Webquest on unemployment rates and wages in Spain - Dealing with real data!

 

This is a webquest about evolution of the unemployment rates and wages Spain. You are going to find information about these variables from our Spanish Statistical Office. You are not going to read about this data, but you are going to cook the data and indicators yourself!!

The previous slides briefly present the type of information we are going to deal with in this activity.

ACTIVITY 1: WHO IS WHO IN THE POPULATION?

Before analysing how unemployment has evolved in our country, we need to know how many people are willing to work and are actually looking for a job.

This information is provided by the EPA (Encuesta de Población Activa) in Spain.

This is the link of the EPA main characteristics and the definition of different types of population:

http://www.ine.es/prensa/epa_prensa.htm

Here you can find a video (in Spanish) about this survey:

HOT POTATOES QUIZ: WHO IS WHO IN TERMS OF THEIR LABOUR SITUATION? 

This is the link for the Hot Potatoes quiz: here

Here you have a copy of the questions:

Have a look at the different definitions of active population, employed population, unemployed population and inactive population at the following link (http://www.ine.es/inebaseDYN/epa30308/docs/resumetepa.pdf). These are the definitions provided by the National Institute of Statistics of Spain used in the Survey of Active Populations to compute the unemployment rate and the activity rate.

1.  How can a civil servant be classified in terms of his labour situation given that he has been sick for the last 6 months due to an operation and he was not able to go to work since then?

a)      Employed

b)      Unemployed

c)      Active

d)     Inactive

2. Manuel works in a cafeteria. He was interviewed by the INE last week while he was on holidays. How can he be classified into the different populations?

a)      He should be considered as an employed person

b)      He is should be considered as unemployed because he did not work when he was interviewed

c)      He is should be considered as inactive because he did not work when he was interviewed

d)     He cannot be interviewed by the INE because he is on holdays

3. If part of the students in the population finish their degrees and start looking for a job, then...

a)      The active population will decrease and the unemployment rate will decrease

b)      The active population will increase and the employment rate will also increase

c)      The active population will increase and therefore the employment rate will decrease

d)     The inactive population will decrease and hence the activity rate will also decrease

4. In which population should a young person who is looking for his first job be included?

a)      Employed

b)      Unemployed

c)      Inactive

d)     He should not be considered in any of the populations described because he has not worked yet

5. In which population should a 60 years-old retired woman be included?

a)      Active population because he is below 65 years old

b)      Her classification depends on whether he was working when she was younger before retiring

c)      Inactive

d)     Employed because she must be receiving a payment from the government and this is computed as part of a civil servant population

6. A person in charge of household chores is considered as...

a)...part of the inactive population, regardless of whether he/she is looking for a new job

b)... part of the active population, regardless of whether he/she is looking for a new job

c) ... part of the employed population because he/she is doing a job. This job is unpaid but it should be considered a true job.

d) ... part of the inactive population if she is not looking for a job

7. A person who is disabled for work due to an accident during the last year is...

a)... part of the active population if he worked before the accident

b)... part of the inactive population.

c)... not considered in any type of population since he is not going to be able to work anymore.

d) ... considered as unemployed if he is receiving any type of benefit.

8. If both the unemployed and the active population increase...

a)... the unemployment rate will also increase.

b)... there is uncertainty about whether the unemployment rate will increase or decrease.

c) ... the employment rate will increase

d) ... the activity rate remains constant

ACTIVITY 2: MOST RECENT INFORMATION

Now, go to the latest data released by the INE (http://www.ine.es/dyngs/INEbase/en/operacion.htm?c=Estadistica_C&cid=1254736176918&menu=ultiDatos&idp=1254735976595)

From this information, answer the following questions to see whether you are able to compute rates and populations from specific data (explain your computation):

• These are indicators that correspond to the following period: ______________
• Why is important to look at the variation rates with respect to the same period of the same year? _________________________________
• According to this survey, what is the total amount of active people in that quarter?____________________________________
• According to this survey, what is the number of people over 16 years old in that quarter?____________________________________
• Compute the employment rate from the data provided in the latest release (you do not need more information that this if you have really learnt how to compute the labour indicators): ______________________________________

ACTIVITY 3: UNEMPLOYMENT RATES, ACTIVITY RATES

Go to the part of the Results of the EPA, to the Annual Section (here you can find a link to all the information provided there: http://www.ine.es/jaxiBD/menu.do?divi=EPA&his=1&type=db&L=1). 

  Show five graphs containing the following information:

o       GRAPH 1: Active Population, Employed Population and Unemployed Population for the last 10 years

o       GRAPH 2: Using the information above, compute a graph with the unemployment rate and the activity rate for the last 10 years

o       GRAPH 3: Show a graph like graph 2 but for males and females

o       GRAPH 4: Given that you can compute the above populations by age groups, show a graph like 2 but only for young people (16-34 years old)

o       GRAPH 5: Show a graph like graph 2 using the results of your province and the results of Madrid.

Given the graphs above, write a short essay about the evolution of the unemployment rate in Spain during the last ten years. You should take into account the evolution of the activity rate in order to explain it. Give comments about the worst periods in terms of unemployment in the last 10 years.

Graphs 3 and 4 are important because they show the specific situation for particular groups of people. Compare the evolution of the unemployment rates for males and females. Has the activity rate for females changed over the past years? Do you think that this activity rate has increased during the last decades?

Young people is another group that is always at risk in terms of unemployment, compare the evolution of graph 4 with the evolution of unemployment for the whole population.

ACTIVITY 4: WAGES

The EPA also provides information about wages, although this information only provides from a subsample. This is Annual information and it can be found also in the results of the EPA.

• From this information, show a graph with the evolution of wages from 2006 to 2013. Compute graphs both for the total population and for males and females.
• Do you see any visual relationship in your graphs between the evolution of wages and the evolution of unemployment?
• Are there noticeable differences between the average wage of males and females? Have these differences remain constant over this time period?