How AS91225 is assessed

What you hand in

• AS91225 is internally assessed, usually as a written report on unemployment in New Zealand, produced over several weeks with access to data and resources.
• Your teacher sets the exact task and context. What follows is what the standard requires, whatever context is chosen.

The three things the standard requires

1 — Identify, define or describe unemployment concepts

• The HLFS definition of unemployment: without paid work, available, actively seeking.
• The labour force, participation rate and unemployment rate, with the formulas.
• Different definitions: the official rate against the broader underutilisation measure; full employment as no cyclical unemployment rather than zero.
• Types of involuntary unemployment: cyclical, structural, frictional, seasonal, regional.

2 — Explain causes of changes in unemployment using economic models

• The labour market model — which curve shifted and why, and what happened to We and Le.
• The AS/AD model — the link to aggregate demand and real GDP.
• The PPF — a point inside the frontier, and what that costs.
• "Using economic models" is not optional. A cause explained without a model does not meet the criterion.

3 — Explain impacts of changes in unemployment on various groups in New Zealand society

• Choose specific groups — the unemployed, workers who keep their jobs, firms, the government, particular regions, young workers.
• "Various" means more than one.

What each grade requires

Grade	Requirement
Achieved	Define the concepts; explain causes using models; explain impacts on groups
Merit	The same explanations, in detail — full chains of reasoning, not assertions
Excellence	Compare and/or contrast causes by their impact on unemployment; compare and/or contrast impacts on different groups; integrate changes shown on the models into the detailed explanations

What "integrating the model" actually means

• Not integrated: a diagram on one page, and a written explanation on another that never mentions it.
• Integrated: the explanation uses the model's own labels as it goes.

"Falling export demand reduces firms' sales, and since labour demand is derived demand, demand for labour shifts left from DL to DL₁. At the new equilibrium the wage falls from We to We₁ and employment falls from Le to Le₁ — the fall from Le to Le₁ is the cyclical unemployment created."

• Every named label in that sentence is doing work. That is integration.

Practical advice for the report

Use real New Zealand data, and cite it.

• Stats NZ publishes the HLFS quarterly: unemployment rate, employment, participation rate, underutilisation.
• Look the current figures up rather than relying on a number in a textbook — the standard is about contemporary unemployment.
• Reference where each figure came from and its date.

Draw the models yourself and label them fully.

• Both axes, both original curves, the shifted curve with a subscript, arrows showing the direction, and both new equilibrium values.
• An unlabelled diagram earns nothing.

Structure the report around the criteria.

1. Define the concepts and present the data
2. Causes — each explained with a model
3. Impacts — on named groups
4. Comparisons — which cause mattered more, and which group was worse affected
5. A conclusion that states a judgement

Write the comparisons deliberately. They are the whole of Excellence, and they will not appear by accident. Plan two: one comparing causes, one comparing groups.