Unemployment and the Labour Force: Their Affect on the Economy

A condition that has existed since the beginning of commercialization, unemployment has been in our history since its monumental recognition in 1929. The Great Depression is really when unemployment became a real issue and its highest peaks where between 1932 and early 1933 when the average rate of unemployment was 24.9%. Fast forward almost 80 years and unemployment is still a political issue whose rate has experienced a roller-coaster ride of highs and lows. Unemployment has many forms, but it is technological unemployment, that is a crisis which if declined will lead to an excellent and a benevolent rise to our nation’s economy.

Consequently, Keynes brought clarity to the subject of the Great Depression and unemployment, his argument suggested that unemployment may not be a temporary condition that the system could naturally recover. Keynes believed that unemployment could in fact reach equilibrium. In this article the Depression was seen as a condition of unemployment brought about a

Working off the last paragraph, less unemployment leads to a higher overall production of products, leading to a higher GDP. A higher GDP leads to a higher standard of living. Basically if everyone in an economy was working and being productive, the economy would start to flourish (Doc 2). But due to an increase in firings and unemployment, the cornucopia of the economy is struggling (Doc 3). The job market is suffering and business struggle to find workers (Doc 1). Workers are important to the economy, keeping it running successfully and completing the business

There are three different kinds of unemployment that affect our economy: frictional, cyclical and structural. Frictional unemployment occurs when there is a time laps between being employed and looking for work. This term can also be referred to as search employment because it is the time spent searching for a place of employment. One example of this would be a student taking time off of work to finish college and get a 4 year degree. Usually, it takes a lot of time and dedication to finish the last years of school, so some students tend to go to school full time and work part time or not at all. This type of unemployment is also classified as voluntary unemployment because this period of unemployment is at the discretion of the person to some small degree. Secondly, there is cyclical unemployment which changes depending on the business need; for example, workers are laid off when business is bad - then

Employment is expressed with the mentioning of the addition of jobs California has provided for its people. For example, the demand for construction workers will result in new jobs for individuals, whether its part time or full time job. This is counted as employment because these people will become employed. These new employees are helping to benefit the economy of California by potentially influencing current unemployed people to follow suit. The new addition of jobs and the newly found hope of those who were hired influence discouraged workers to go out and search for a job, if successful, increasing the number of people in the states labor force. If hired, the individuals would contribute to certain aspects of the economy because they would now be counted into the formula for labor force, or the unemployment rate. These aspects are taken as benefits to the Californian economy although there was an increase in the unemployment rate. The unemployment rate is self-explanatory for the most part; it is the percentage of the labor force that is unemployed1. California did experience an increase in this rate from 6.3% to 6.4%2, but it did not discourage the population. As stated before, more individuals were able to join the labor force and expand the amount of members in the

Frictional unemployment arises when people enter the labor force or are in the process of changing jobs.

Labour force participation comprises two parts of people, one part is people who are employed, the other one is people who are unemployed but actively seeking a job. At most cases, low unemployment is inseparable with limited labour force participation.

There are many different age brackets, genders, and ethnicity that make up unemployment in the labor force. Some of the same people who were once in the labor force also make up the workers who are not counted in the labor force anymore. Unemployment is important to the economy and the society that we live in because the more people without any jobs and/or not having a legitimate source of income will increase crime, poverty, political unsteadiness, downgrade health standards, and mental health problems. Unemployment can also cause underemployment which is not good for the economy. Underemployment, in one of its usage, is defined as the employment of

John Burges and William Mitchell state that unemployment trend has acted as a “social exclusion perpetrated against particular sections of the community, in general the young, old, poor and uneducated” (1998). The issue then lays in the trade off between the

But as I will show, a sustained expansion in the economy lasting, now, 13 years has reduced current unemployment to unusually low levels. The gains in reducing unemployment are evident even in the most problematic areas, such as youth unemployment, long-term unemployment and poor employment opportunities for older workers. Unemployment is not a precise concept. This is true even in countries, such as Australia, where most production of goods and services is done through the formal economy, and most people work for

However, life has changed, globalization and feminism have had a huge impact on the work environment all around the world. Technology has also made many jobs easier, yet very, very similar. Because of these changes, unemployment has become an issue all around the globe. The government views the unemployment situation as an individual problem.  From the government’s perspective, unemployment is due to the lack of training of the individual.  However, because

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.

Sociologists study human society. Their subject matter includes human behaviour in various social contexts, social interaction, social institutions and organisation, social change and development (Haralmbos, Van Krieken, Smith & Holborn 1999). For this reason, unemployment is an issue which sociologists delve. Unemployment has far reaching affects in all areas of society. Stratification in the areas of age, race, class, gender, ethnicity, sex and disability is rife amongst the employed and unemployed alike, unemployment creates further segregation amongst these already stratified people. This essay will look at unemployment from the functional and conflict theory

Unemployment has always been something that Americans have worried about since the great depression in which one in every four people was unemployed. High unemployment has an impact on every one even those whom are still currently employed. For example if the unemployment rate is particular high then even those with jobs get worried. Unemployment is also separated in to distinct categories base on which group is the focus of the study. The categories can be by race, age or location, for example the unemployment rate of those between the age of sixty and sixty-five could be compared those between the ages of thirty and thirty-five. These categories allow economist to see which groups are the best and which groups are worst off. One group

According to one article, “Structural unemployment occurs when certain industries decline because of long term changes in market conditions” ("Unemployment types", 2017). More specifically, as Amadeo states, structural unemployment occurs when “Factories move to cheaper locations” (2017) and more efficient options (such as newer technologies, more skilled employees, etc.) are undertaken. Moving on to the minor types, surplus, being the first, is “caused by minimum wage laws, unions and wage/price controls. When wages are set at a high level, unemployment often results” (Amadeo, 2017). The second minor type is demand deficient unemployment. When there is less demand for a particular product, “firms sell less and so reduce production. If they are producing less, this leads to lower demand for workers” (Pettinger, “Demand Deficient Unemployment”, 2017). Therefore, as the name implies, this is caused by an unmet demand when compared to the people in that specific line of work. The third minor, but also major, type is full employment, which is known to be “devoid of cyclical or deficient-demand unemployment” ("Full Employment", 2017), according to one source, and is not simply, as the name suggests, where everyone has a job. In addition, “full employment means that unemployment has fallen to the lowest possible level without provoking inflation” (Palmer, 2016). Regional unemployment is the fourth minor type, being impacted by structural unemployment and,