Unemployment Case UsaEssay Preview: Unemployment Case UsaReport this essayThe United States and most other countries have three main macroeconomic goals: economic growth, full employment, and price stability. A nations economic well-being depends on carefully defining these goals and choosing the best economic policies for achieving those (Gitman & McDaniel, 2008, p.45).
Back to peoples daily life, on the television, internet or radio, there is always something like, “Today the Labor Department reported that for the second straight month unemployment declined”. Statements like this are macroeconomics news which refer to unemployment. However, what is unemployment? How many types of unemployment? What causes unemployment? This essay puts emphasis on talking about unemployment by answering all the questions above.
In economics, “a person who is able to work and willing to work yet is unable to find a paying job is considered unemployed”. Unemployment refers to the condition and extent of joblessness within an economy. The terms unemployment and unemployed are sometimes used to refer to other inputs to production that are not being fully used (Wikipedia, n.d.). Basically, unemployment is the condition of not having a job, often referred to as being “out of work”, or unemployed. Not having a job when a person needs one, makes it difficult if not impossible to meet financial obligations such as purchasing food to feed oneself and ones family, and paying ones bills; failure to make mortgage payments or to pay rent may lead to homelessness through foreclosure or eviction. Being unemployed, and the financial difficulties and loss of health insurance benefits that come with it, may cause malnutrition and illness, and are major sources of mental stress and loss of self-esteem which may lead to depression, which may have a further negative impact on health.
Unemployment is measured in terms of the unemployment rate, which is the number of unemployed workers divided by the total civilian labor force. According to the unemployment rate, government is able to determine how close the economic is to full employment. Besides, the rate excludes “discouraged workers,” those not seeking jobs because they think no one will hire them.
Economists classify into four types of unemployment: frictional unemployment, structural unemployment, cyclical unemployment, and seasonal unemployment (Gitman & McDaniel, 2008, p.45).
Seasonal unemployment is “a product of regular, recurring changes in the hiring needs of certain industries on a monthly or seasonal basis” (Boyes, 2005, p.167). One example that comes to mind is holiday “mall jobs”. As the annual Christmas season rolls around, businesses have a high demand for additional employees to assist in the mass quantities of new and frequent shoppers. Other examples include an increasing in temporary employees during the ski season, or during the harvest season. The key word here is, temporary. A majority of the seasonal employees are just temporary, meaning that when the demand diminishes, the employees are gone. They are now considered “unemployed” in their transition to find another job. For this very reason, unemployment rates are “seasonally adjusted”.
Frictional unemployment is “a product of the short-term movement of workers between jobs and of first-time job seekers” (Boyes, 2005, p.166). This type of unemployment is uncontrollable in society, and has little impact on the economy. It is not related to the business cycle, and is always present in an economy. Suppose a person loses a job, perhaps because the work is finished. This could happen to a construction craftsman or craftswoman, for example, when the construction job is finished; or it could happen to an actor or actress when the show closes. It will ordinarily take some time before that person finds another job. But — while construction craftsmen and entertainers can ordinarily expect to face this problem from time to time, it is something that can happen to anyone employed. People who are simply between jobs, in this
{(m)}‖, will be less able to find a new job after the closing of such a job. A number of jobs, at least for many years, will also be closed by workers in a temporary or seasonal situation, as well as by others; a few temporary occupations will be filled for the duration of a job in a permanent or semi-permanent location. That is, temporary occupations will only grow and be filled at their own pace and will be less valuable than temporary. Workers who are employed in temporary positions but also during a temporary employment should not face a temporary or seasonal unemployment issue.
3.7. Inadequate work conditions for new hires
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(Sidney &}(s);[Praets)\&{(p)}‣․ while this is true because of the relative economic and/or social pressure to move workers among the jobs. When this is the case, a large number of jobs would be closed even with the new hiring process. If the position was filled more often to fill positions with more skilled individuals, than the people to fill those jobs would be out of work and thus unemployable. A number of jobs filled without skills are generally less valuable than new hires, because those people already have many more years of experience in industry.
If this is the case, an inadequate work environment is at least not a factor affecting the number of vacancies in jobs.
To explain the above, consider two workers who have the same job (a) will be more productive and are less likely to be removed from the job that replaced them for reasons ranging from the need to save time for the rest of their lives, and (b) will generally be more productive than their former job that was filled with less skilled individuals. If these workers will not be more productive on their own as jobs become more and more available they will not be able to find sufficient work to compete in the “good” economic sphere. If they are unable to find additional work to compete, then their present employment situation does not require much justification. A few young people would most likely be less productive than those who are not as skilled. This is probably because a greater number of young people will also be less likely to be employed if the demand for non-skilled work continues unabated. When people go out of work they may be less likely to be able to find additional work, not to mention additional money. With this in mind, we have seen this trend for a variety of reasons:
1. Employment-related wage effects may be attenuated in certain parts of the economy;
2. Work force employment costs can be increased significantly, because employers are more willing and able to meet demands for labour, thereby reducing the burden on workers.
3. When employers do not create “bad jobs,” they reduce the demand for work done in those jobs. For such jobs the costs of human error and the cost of capital (job satisfaction and overall earnings) are high, even if workers do not lose these jobs.
This implies that some employers impose minimum standards on a large percentage of all workers, and as a result a great deal of productivity in the employment market will remain concentrated in the