Economist Robert Gordon has written the following:
During 1939, more than any other year in the dismal Depression decade, the American economy exhibited every evidence of slipping into a low-employment trap. Prices were on a plateau, with no tendency to decline, despite high unemployment.
a. What does Gordon mean by a “low-employment trap”? 

b. Why might the fact that prices were not declining despite high unemployment lead Gordon to conclude that the economy was in a low-employment trap?