Consumer price index (cpi)

Technological advances have created structural unemployment in the newspaper industry. Web-based advertising has drawn advertisers away from newspaper ads.

• Technological advances have created structural unemployment in the newspaper industry. Web-based advertising has drawn advertisers away from newspaper ads.
• Free trade allowed global food corporations access to their markets. That put small-scale farmers out of business. They couldn't compete with the lower prices of global firms

As the demand for goods shifts, so does the demand for the labor that produces those goods
The minimum wage is the lowest legal wage that companies can pay their workers. The purpose of minimum-wage laws is to prevent employers from exploiting workers. The minimum wage should provide enough income to afford a living wage, the amount needed to provide enough food, clothing, and shelter
In labor economics, efficiency wages are a level of wages paid to workers above the minimum wage in order to retain a skilled and efficient workforce. Efficiency wage theory posits that an employer must pay its workers high enough so that workers are incentivized to be productive and that highly skilled workers do not quit.

Better-paid workers can afford a more nutritious diet, and healthier workers are more productive.

• Better-paid workers can afford a more nutritious diet, and healthier workers are more productive.
• Second efficiency-wage theory, which is more relevant for developed countries, holds that high wages reduce labor turnover.
• A fourth efficiency-wage theory holds that a high wage improves worker effort.

Some economists believe that the increase in long-term unemployment is a result of government policies.

• Some economists believe that the increase in long-term unemployment is a result of government policies.
• In particular, in February 2009, when the depth of the recession was apparent, Congress extended the eligibility for unemployment insurance from the normal 26 weeks to 99 weeks, and it did not allow this program of extended benefits to expire until January 2014.
• Harvard economist Robert Barro wrote an article in the August 30, 2010, issue of the Wall Street Journal titled “The Folly of Subsidizing Unemployment.”
• According to Barro, “the dramatic expansion of unemployment insurance eligibility to 99 weeks is almost surely the culprit” responsible for the rise in long-term unemployment.
• Barro concludes that the “reckless expansion of unemployment-insurance coverage to 99 weeks was unwise economically and politically.