Self-study
In a recession, a decrease in consumer spending causes many businesses to lay off workers or even to close. ███████ ███ ████ █████ ████ ██ █ █████████ ███████ ██████ ████ ███ █████ ███ ██████ ██ ██ ████████ ██ ███ ██████ ██ ██████ ███ ███ ████████ ████████ ████ █ █████████ ██ ███████ ██ ██ ████████ ██ ████████ ████████ ███ ██ █████████ ██ ████████ ████████ ████ ███████ █ ████ ███ ██████████ ████████ ███ ██████████████ █████████ ████ ██████ ██████████ ██ ███ ███████ █████ █ █████████ ███ █████████ █████ ██████ ██████████ ███████ ██ ████ ██ █████████
Summary
In a recession, consumer spending decreases, so some businesses lay off workers or close. Workers who lose their jobs this way usually remain jobless. This means an increase of the total number of jobless people. When a recession ends, consumer spending and business activity increase, so more workers are needed. However, businesspeople are not confident in the economy after a recession, so delay hiring more workers as long as they can.
Strongly Supported Conclusions
The stimulus supports the conclusion that at the end of a recession, it is possible for consumer spending to increase even though the number of jobless people remains higher than pre-recession. The stimulus also supports the conclusion that when an economy recovers from a recession, the number of people who are jobless may not immediately decrease.
3.
The statements above, if true, ███████ ████ ███████ ███ █████ ███ ██ ███ █████████ ████████████
a
Recessions are usually ██████ ██ █ ████████ ██ ████████████████ ██████████ ██ ███ ████████
This answer is unsupported. We don’t know what factors cause an economy to enter into a recession. From the stimulus, we only know what results from an economy already in a recession.
b
Governmental intervention is ████████ ██ █████ ███ ██ ███████ ██ ███████ ████ █ ██████████
This answer is unsupported. We don’t know if government intervention is required for an economy to recover. We only know what factors define an economy’s recovery from a recession.
c
Employees of businesses ████ █████ ██████ █ █████████ ████ ██ ███ ████████ ██ ███ ███████ ███ ████ █████ ████ ██████ ████ ██████████
This answer is unsupported. We don’t know whether more people are laid off by businesses that close altogether, or by businesses that are just downsizing. We just know that some workers lose their jobs for one of these reasons during a recession, not the exact proportions.
d
Sometimes recovery from █ █████████ ████ ███ ████████ ██████ ██ █ ████████ ██ ███ ██████ ██ ██████ ███ ███ ████████
This answer is strongly supported. Since businesspeople delay hiring for as long as possible, even after a recession has ended, we can conclude that there might not be an immediate decrease in the total number of people who are jobless.
e
Workers who lose █████ ████ ██████ █ █████████ ███ ██████ ██ ███ ███████ ████ ████ ████ ███ ███████ █████████
This answer is unsupported. We don’t know what types of jobs workers are likely to find when an economy recovers from a recession.