Factors of Unemployment in a Nation

The unemployment rate measures the percentage of the total work force that is unemployed and actively seeking employment during the previous month. Unemployment is termed as a major health of the economy and every country tries to reduce unemployment rate for sustainable growth. It is referred as the number of unemployed workers divided by the total civilian labour force. Every economy tries to ensure full employment in the country but there is the existence of natural rate of unemployment though nation tries hard to obtain full employment in the country.

The unemployment rate has dramatically increased over the last several months. This increase has created many complications for the American people. Although the United States economy has created over 7 million jobs, there is still a long way to go until the economy is back on track.

The largest cause of unemployment can be attributed to recession. The term recession refers to the backward movement of the economy for a long period. People spend only when they have to. (Nagle 2009). With people spending less there would be less money in circulation therefore, enterprises would suffer financially and people would suffer too. This is so because recession reduces the fiscal bases of enterprises, forcing these enterprises to reduce their workforce through layoffs. These enterprises lay off their workers in order to cut the costs they incur in terms of wage and salary payments.

Since the early 2000’s the unemployment rates of the United States have been constantly changing. For most of this time unemployment rates were increasing at a quick pace as the country was dealing with internal financial issues of its own. When people are out of work the rates of depression and crime seem to skyrocket. This is due to the lack of funds coming into a home which result in some less than admirable acts being committed. There are many causes of unemployment and many effects that unemployment can have on not only our economy, but our personal lives as well.

In this kind of unemployment, people usually suffer from country’s economical situations. Even people with good and healthy jobs undergo with crisis and loss their jobs just because of country’s economic policies don’t adapt changes and don’t have ability to adapt changes.

Some folks might say unemployment is the state of not possessing an occupation; well that is not the complete case here. Unemployment is the position of being without any work and constantly trying to find an occupation in the past four weeks. However, people who have been unemployed for 15 weeks or longer are also considered a huge part of the total amount of employed workers (Khan). Furthermore, waiting workers that have been fired or laid after submitting their resumes to possible companies are also considered unemployed. Every single day, it is becoming more difficult for unemployed people to find a career in their futures. In order to find the unemployment rate, which is described as a percentage where it can be calculated by dividing the total amount of people out of labor and presently looking for an occupation by the total amount of workers in the labor force. Furthermore, according to an article relating to unemployment, the unemployment rate has been increasing with people losing their jobs on a daily basis (Zuckerman). More part time jobs are created while the amount of full time jobs is decreasing in the United States. Last but not least, the unemployment rate clearly provides information about the current society and economy, whether it is the current amount of people unemployed or the time the out of labor people have been looking for work, by helping the government to make sensible

Frictional unemployment occurs when people leave their job and search the labour market for something better. This is more of a problem when the economy is doing well than in a recession when fewer jobs exist, so workers tend to hold onto jobs if they have one. Frictional unemployment can be reduced by making information readily available for those looking for new jobs, for example in Job centres or on the internet and by making it difficult to claim benefits when unemployed so unemployed people have to get work in order to have a decent standard of living.

Unemployment is divided into three types which are frictional unemployment, structural unemployment and cyclical unemployment. Firstly, frictional unemployment is the portion of unemployment due to the normal working of labor market, such as skill matching problems. Secondly, structural unemployment is the portion of unemployment that is due to changes in structure of economy likes technological advances will cause higher unemployment. Last, cyclical unemployment will only occurs during the period of recessions and depressions.

In the Wall Street Journal dated September 6th 2013, an article titled, ‘Unemployment Drops for the Wrong Reasons’ describes how unemployment has dropped in the United States based on the latest Bureau of Labor Statistics population survey. According to Izzo (2013), there was a drop in unemployment rate to 7.3% by 0.1% in August 2013. This was coupled with a drop of broader measure of unemployment by 0.3% to 13.7%. On closer scrutiny, the drop in unemployment came from wrong reasons (Izzo, 2013). The arguments in the article are that the decline in the rate of unemployment is purely due adverse factors in the US economy. The 0.1% was approximately equal to 115,000 people.

The causes of unemployment are diverse, at present we are faced with different types of unemployment which are as follows: 1. Voluntary unemployment this shows people who are reluctant to work at the current wage rate. Voluntary unemployment is a national waste of human energy which is

Unemployment can be down to individuals characteristics, they may have become unemployed through their own fault such as misconduct. An individual may also not be trying hard enough to find work, preferring to get benefits instead. The government has responded to this by making benefits for the unemployed harder to get as they have to prove they are actively seeking work, this comes after claims benefits take away incentives to work.

Unemployment is a problem faced by all nations only that it varies in degree (Teichova & Matis, 2003). Reduction in its levels promotes economic growth and development in any country. There are various types of unemployment which include voluntary unemployment, involuntary unemployment, frictional unemployment, cyclical unemployment, structural unemployment and seasonal unemployment. Voluntary unemployment is where workers willingly leave the jobs they are holding and go to look for better ones. Involuntary unemployment on the other hand is where workers are fired or laid off from their jobs and need to find new ones. Frictional unemployment is where workers take some time before they can secure a job after leaving a certain job. This is a type of unemployment faced by many people since they leave jobs without having already secured new ones. Cyclic unemployment is the type of unemployment that is dependent on economic cycles of recession and boom (Cogley & Sargent 2005). As the economy enters into recession, some companies respond by cutting on the level of production hence laying off workers since they are not in full production. Cyclic unemployment naturally ends during boom. Structural unemployment on the other hand is the type of unemployment where some labor markets have more workers than the total jobs available (Jena, Kandalam & Sun, 2009). Also, it can occur where the

Furthermore, there is diverse view about the cause of unemployment. The classical economists debated that unemployment occurs due to the supply side factors such as frictional unemployment, structural factors, et al., while Keynesians emphasizes on demand deficiency unemployment, which means that unemployment is caused by insufficient economic growth and low aggregate demand

Frictional unemployment is the short-term unemployment of people who are changing jobs, careers, or locations. This category of unemployment includes the jobless who have the skills and competencies to land a job, and are in the process of finding a job, but have not landed a job yet. Workers who look out for a new job when still retaining their old jobs do not count under frictional unemployment.

Inflation is one of the oldest causes of unemployment. The economy faces a steep rise in prices as compared to other economies of the world. This leads to failure in exports as companies are not able to compete with others due to rise in price. Incomes suffer, people 's savings fall and gradually companies start firing people, being unable to pay them on due time. Thus, the rate of unemployment increases.