Practice Test: Reading Comprehension - 65 | 100 RCs for GMAT PDF Download

The overall causes of poverty

Deficiencies in the training of the work force

Trade relationships among producers of goods

Shortages of jobs providing adequate income

Strikes and inadequate supplies of labor

Innovative programs using multiple approaches should be set up to reduce the level of unemployment.

A compromise should be found between the positions of those who view joblessness as an evil greater than economic control and those who hold the opposite view.

New statistical indices should be developed to measure the degree to which unemployment and inadequately paid employment cause suffering.

Consideration should be given to the ways in which statistics can act as partial causes of the phenomena that they purport to measure.

The labor force should be restructured so that it corresponds to the range of job vacancies.

the employed poor

dependent children in single-earner families

workers who become disabled

retired workers

full-time workers who become unemployed

in times of high unemployment, there are some people who do not remain unemployed for long

the capacity for self-support depends on receiving moderate-to-high wages

those in forced idleness include, besides the unemployed, both underemployed part-time workers and those not actively seeking work

at different times during the year, different people are unemployed

many of those who are affected by unemployment are dependents of unemployed workers

What causes labor market pathologies that result in suffering

Why income measures are imprecise in measuring degrees of poverty

Which of the currently used statistical procedures are the best for estimating the incidence of hardship that is due to unemployment

Where the areas of agreement are among poverty, employment, and earnings figures

How social statistics give an unclear picture of the degree of hardship caused by low wages and insufficient employment opportunities

more people were unemployed in the 1930’s

unemployment now has less severe effects

social programs are more needed now

there now is a greater proportion of elderly and handicapped people among those in poverty

poverty has increased since the 1930’s

there are several factors that cause the payment of low wages to some members of the labor force

unemployment statistics can underestimate the hardship resulting from joblessness

recurrent inadequacies in the labor market can exist and can cause hardships for individual workers

a majority of those who are jobless at any one time to not suffer severe hardship

there are fewer individuals who are without jobs at some time during a year than would be expected on the basis of monthly unemployment figures

recurrence of periods of unemployment for a group of low-wage workers

possibility that earnings may be received from more than one job per worker

fact that unemployment counts do not include those who work for low wages and remain poor

establishment of a system of record-keeping that makes it possible to compile poverty statistics

prevalence, among low-wage workers and the unemployed, of members of families in which others are employed

A short-term increase in the number of those in poverty can indicate a shortage of jobs because the basic number of those unable to accept employment remains approximately constant.

For those who are in poverty as a result of joblessness, there are social programs available that provide a minimum standard of living.

Poverty statistics do not consistently agree with earnings statistics, when each is taken as a measure of hardship resulting from unemployment.

The elderly and handicapped categories include many who previously were employed in the labor market.

Since the labor market is global in nature, poor workers in one country are competing with poor workers in another with respect to the level of wages and the existence of jobs.