How many really suffer as a result of labor market problems? This is one of the most critical yet contentious social policy questions. In many ways, our social statistics exaggerate the degree of hardship. Unemployment does not have the same dire consequences today as it did in the 1930’s when most of the unemployed were primary breadwinners, when income and earnings were usually much closer to the margin of subsistence, and when there were no countervailing social programs for those failing in the labor market. Increasing affluence, the rise of families with more than one wage earner, the growing predominance of secondary earners among the unemployed, and improved social welfare protection have unquestionably mitigated the consequences of joblessness. Earnings and income data also overstate the dimensions of hardship. Among the millions with hourly earnings at or below the minimum wage level, the overwhelming majority are from multiple-earner, relatively affluent families. Most of those counted by the poverty statistics are elderly or handicapped or have family responsibilities which keep them out of the labor force, so the poverty statistics are by no means an accurate indicator of labor market pathologies.

Yet there are also many ways our social statistics underestimate the degree of labor-market-related hardship. The unemployment counts exclude the millions of fully employed workers whose wages are so low that their families remain in poverty. Low wages and repeated or prolonged unemployment frequently interact to undermine the capacity for self-support. Since the number experiencing joblessness at some time during the year is several times the number unemployed in any month, those who suffer as a result of forced idleness can equal or exceed average annual unemployment, even though only a minority of the jobless in any month really suffer. For every person counted in the monthly unemployment tallies, there is another working part-time because of the inability to find full-time work, or else outside the labor force but wanting a job. Finally, income transfers in our country have always focused on the elderly, disabled, and dependent, neglecting the needs of the working poor, so that the dramatic expansion of cash and in-kind transfers does not necessarily mean that those failing in the labor market are adequately protected.

As a result of such contradictory evidence, it is uncertain whether those suffering seriously as a result of labor market problems number in the hundreds of thousands or the tens of millions, and, hence, whether high levels of joblessness can be tolerated or must be countered by job creation and economic stimulus. There is only one area of agreement in this debate—that the existing poverty, employment, and earnings statistics are inadequate for one their primary applications, measuring the consequences of labor market problems.

Q. According to the passage, one factor that causes unemployment and earnings figures to over predict the amount of economic hardship is the

Question

Q. Read the following passage and answer the (six) items that follow:
China's position as the "factory of the world" could be under threat as widespread calls to increase workers' wages in the face of rising inflationary pressures push factories to consider relocating outside the country, analysts said. The direct impact on the petrochemicals sector was relatively minor, though calls of wage hikes from sectors such as the electronics and consumer goods that attract scores of migrant workers would compel manufacturers to relook their business models.
A few cities in China have already begun to raise minimum wages, with many more cities and provinces to follow suit in the coming weeks, amid concerns that factory owners in China were underpaying their workers. In China's southern manufacturing hub of Shenzhen, the local labor department recently announced that it would raise minimum wages by 10-22% to Yuan (CNY) 1100 ($161) per month from July 2010, while the Beijing municipal government earlier announced a 20% rise in the minimum wage in the city to CNY960 a month.
"We expect the forthcoming wage increase to be around 20% in most provinces and cities?" said Jun Ma, chief economist of the greater China region at Deutsche Bank in Hong Kong. An increase in wages may cause a big dent in the cost of doing business of downstream industries that are more labor intensive such as textiles and toy manufacturers, analysts said. "Workers' salaries in these smaller downstream factories make up 10-15% of their costs so any enforced increase could push them out to cheaper countries like Vietnam, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and India," said Danny Ho, a petrochemical analyst at brokerage firm Yuanta Securities.
A 10% wage increase in low-end, labor-intensive sectors including apparel and electronic components could push up China's consumer price index (CPI) by 0.4% and reduce employment by 700,000 jobs, Ma of Deutsche Bank said. "At the sector level, electronic components, apparel, furniture, and auto parts are most obvious victims of wage inflation," he added.
Foxconn, which manufactures products for companies such as Apple and Dell, has been criticized over its labor practices after a number of suicides at two Foxconn facilities in southern China. The company's recent move to increase the wages of its workers came amid continuing signs of worker unrest in southern China. Officials in China are very concerned about the social impact of the strikes and are placing pressure on low-end manufacturers to raise wages, Ma of Deutsche Bank said.
Recent comments from Premier Wen Jiabao on improving "social justice" would also imply that the government was looking at more aggressive measures to improve the wages of low-income workers in China, he said. "The faster-than-expected labor cost increase has now become a political imperative," Ma added. Rising labor costs in China in the long term would help change the country's manufacturing mix and upgrade its economy, analysts said, adding that it would also help reduce the income gap in the country.

The term social justice according to the passage means

The correct option is E prevalence, among low-wage workers and the unemployed, of members of families in which others are employedOption (E) is the correct answer. Check the video for the approach.

The correct option is E prevalence, among low-wage workers and the unemployed, of members of families in which others are employed
Option (E) is the correct answer. Check the video for the approach.