12.4 Students analyze the elements of the U.S. labor market in a global setting. Understand the operations of the labor market, including the circumstances surrounding the establishment of principal American labor unions, procedures that unions use to gain benefits for their members, the effects of unionization, the minimum wage, and unemployment insurance. Describe the current economy and labor market, including the types of goods and services produced, the types of skills workers need, the effects of rapid technological change, and the impact of international competition. Discuss wage differences among jobs and professions, using the laws of demand and supply and the concept of productivity. Explain the effects of international mobility of capital and labor on the U.S. economy.
Students analyze the aggregate economic behavior of the U.S. economy.
Distinguish between nominal and real data. Define, calculate, and explain the significance of an unemployment rate, the number of new jobs created monthly, an inflation or deflation rate, and a rate of economic growth. Students analyze issues of international trade and explain how the U.S. economy affects, and is affected by, economic forces beyond its borders. Identify the gains in consumption and production efficiency from trade, with emphasis on the main products and changing geographic patterns of twentieth-century trade among countries in the Western Hemisphere. Compare the reasons for and the effects of trade restrictions during the Great Depression compared with present-day arguments among labor, business, and political leaders over the effects of free trade on the economic and social interests of various groups of Americans.