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Unemployment in the United States Essay

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For what has been a very, very long time, our elected representatives have sought to achieve “full employment” as a national goal….but full employment has been suspect as a possible cause of inflation, and is therefore weakened by decisions of the Federal Reserve, in an attempt to retard inflation. In terms of causes, unemployment has changed; the character, degree of severity, possible solutions of unemployment over the last ten years or so have been reduced, and has morphed in terms of just who is experiencing the unemployment and the suggestions for answering the problem. It has been the traditional fundamental trades, like manufacturing, viewed as part of the shift in the economy towards the new information age model, as workers …show more content…

The belief is that the essential principle holds, however, and that if the unemployment rate gets too low, wages will rise, leading to “inflation.” (Unemployment: an LBO overview, 1999)
The level of unemployement is affected by national policies and international relationships and events. International competition has been significantly on the rise since the end of World War II, resulting in the US facing major challenges from countries like Japan and Germany. American manufacturers have been seeking cost reduction solutions whilst increasing production in an effort attain or maintain a lead. One solution has been to move their manufacturing operations to another country, one with lower manufacturing costs, less regulations, and/or cheaper labor force. Globalization of industries are having a weighty effect on the US labor force, which must deal with increasing quotas, reduced union strength, job flight, high unemployment, and other matters linked to international competition and its effects on US manufacturing. There has been many request of our government to do something about these changes, from the burden of protectionist policies to trying to convince American businesses not to leave the country.
Economic growth has increased international competition, and in some markets, dominance of the Japanese and the Germans. Additionally, there have been many efforts to improve the trading positions of other regions

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