2026, Question 2 · Short · 5 points · about 12 minutes
2026 AP Macroeconomics FRQ 2 answers
Foxhound labor data and Phillips curves
Use a labor market table to find employment and the unemployment rate, plot the economy on Phillips curves, and decide how retirements of employed people change the unemployment rate.
Skip to the worked answer and scoring (try the question first if you can)
Lessons this question draws on
1 Read the question
The question is College Board's, from the 2026 exam. It starts on page 4 of the PDF.
2 Write your answer
Answer each part the way you would on the exam, in full sentences, with your work shown. Your writing saves as you type.
3 Score it
Score your answer against College Board's scoring guidelines, one point at a time. Give yourself a point only when your answer says what the guideline asks for.
Scoring guidelines (PDF, page 4)
4 Worked answer and scoring
Here is how a response that earns every point could read, part by part, and what each of College Board's scoring points asks for, put in our own words. Open a part once you have written your own answer to it. The scoring guidelines PDF above is the official word on every point.
Sort the table before calculating. The labor force already counts everyone who is working or looking for work; retired people and people not looking are outside it and do not enter any of these calculations.
Part A 1 point
Model answer
Employed = labor force minus unemployed = 15,000,000 minus 900,000 = 14,100,000.
What earns the point
- 14,100,000. The labor force is the employed plus the unemployed, and the unemployed are the people not working but looking. Retired people and people not looking are not in the labor force, so they are not subtracted.
Part B 1 point
Model answer
Unemployment rate = unemployed / labor force × 100 = 900,000 / 15,000,000 × 100 = 6%.
What earns the point
- 6%, with the work shown. The rate is a share of the labor force, not of the whole population.
Part C 2 points
Model answer
Put the unemployment rate across and the inflation rate up. Draw a vertical LRPC at the natural rate, 3%. Draw a downward-sloping SRPC and mark point X on it at 6% unemployment and 2% inflation, to the right of the LRPC.
What earns each point
- A correctly labeled SRPC. Unemployment rate across, inflation rate up, and a curve that slopes down.
- A vertical LRPC at 3%, and X on the SRPC to its right at 6% and 2%. Unemployment of 6% is above the natural rate of 3%, which puts X to the right of the LRPC. The numbers have to sit at their places on the axes.
Part D 1 point
Model answer
The unemployment rate increases. Retired people are not looking for work, so they leave the labor force. The labor force shrinks while the number of unemployed stays at 900,000, so the unemployed are a larger share of a smaller labor force.
What earns the point
- It increases, because the labor force falls while the number unemployed stays the same. The people who retire were employed, so they come out of the labor force but not out of the unemployed. The same 900,000 divided by a smaller labor force gives a higher rate.
Question, scoring guidelines and Chief Reader report: College Board. The title, summary and worked answer are ours.