preview

Employment Is Falling Off A Cliff And It Doesn 't Matter A Country

Better Essays

Tara Ahmed 7/9/2015 EMPLOYMENT ESSAY A nation’s unemployment rate, average workweek, labor force participation rate, and average hourly wages are all very important indicators for measuring the health of its economy. If labor force participation is declining and the unemployment rate is increasing at the same time, it is an indication that the economy is in serious trouble. Besides raw numbers, there are a number of factors which affect the overall composition and working of the labor force in a country. Labor force participation in USA is at an all-time low. A look at a compilation of articles and economic papers published in prestigious publications like Forbes, The Atlantic allows for deeper introspection about the impact of economic …show more content…

This in turn frees up the labor to be used in other sectors like service industry. When fewer people were employed by agriculture sector, due to efficient productivity, it caused structural unemployment, but it freed up more labor for another sector like manufacturing. That cycle will be repeated as manufacturing becomes more efficient and more people would be made available for say service industry. This therefore contributes to more productivity in the service industry. The paper presented in The Economist titled “Previous technological innovation has always delivered more long-run employment, not less. But things can change.” addresses the constant fear that technological advances will adversely affect employment opportunities. Technical advances will replace humans in work space and there will be massive unemployment in the future is a constant rhetoric by certain economists. This fear has proved to be baseless over the past centuries. When industrial revolution happened, there was massive structural unemployment in agricultural sector. Horses and mules were replaced by tractors. But as industries flourished, there was a huge demand for workers in large factories. Large scale manufacturing did not hamper the need for more workers. New technology opens up new job sectors and creates opportunities for a more specialized work force. There was massive investment in education and skill development. Early 20th

Get Access