After several quarters of a severe recession, explain why there might be a decrease in the official unemployment rate. Businesses begin to hire again. The government wants to instill optimism. Discouraged workers stop looking for work. Businesses substitute capital for labor.

Businesses begin to hire again.

Explanation:

Economic recovery is the phase of the economy that follows a recession, during which an economy regains and exceeds peak employment and output levels prior to downturn.

A recovery period is characterized mainly by high levels of growth in real gross domestic product, employment, corporate profits, and other indicators.

Therefore as given in the scenario, ''after several quarters of a severe recession, the reason there might be a decrease in the official unemployment rate is because of growth in employment as businesses begin to hire again.

i mean they dont have to

answer decisions made by individual households and firms;