How Unemployment Has Risen in America - Economics Essay Sample

As per the data released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the unemployment rate in the United States has risen at an alarming rate. Nearly 11.3 million individuals in the US are unemployed, accounting for 7.3 percent of the aggregate population. The condition has adversely affected the country's economy. As stated in the report, the people who are temporarily laid-off had increased by about 448, 000 persons. Furthermore, the statistics uncovered the rate of employment for the different set of people in the country. The level of unemployment amongst women is at 6.4 percent, while for men stood at 7.0 percent. The womens employment rate increased significantly due to the national womens empowerment programs. As for the teenagers, the rate of unemployment hit the highest point of 22.2 percent; this may be ascribed to their insufficient skills as well as inability to implement proper youth empowerment programs. The rate of unemployment amongst the racial groups varied significantly. It is revealed by the statistics that the rate of unemployment was highest among the black at 13.1 percent, while for the white, the rate was as low as 6.3 percent (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2011). However, 7 million jobs have been created in the United States economy; there is still a lot that needs to be done until when the economy is back to struck. The focal point of this paper is based on discussing the major causes of unemployment in the United States.

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The current American economy has intensified the unemployment rate in the country: According to Amadeo (2017), the Americas economic crisis is a distinguishing factor that steers up the unemployment in the recent times. Diverse sectors of the economy portrayed various unemployment trends. The entertainment and leisure industry is among the sectors that experience the hugely affected by the economic crisis. This advanced to elevated unemployment levels in the sector. The marketing and retail sector further laid off a large number of employees during the economic crisis. While in the health sector, nearly half a million individuals were laid off temporarily after the government shutdown. The part-time jobs have been on the rise, causing the unwillingness of the companies to employ workers in the permanent terms. The company's denial of investing their profits in the recruiting of individuals and taking them for employment has influenced by the country's growing rate of unemployment. Several firms in the United States have embarked on several methods of using their profits rather than to increase the number of employers. Following the expiry of the economic crisis in the country, various companies became restrained in expanding their number of staffs. The employees' maintenance cost during such times negatively influenced the companies. It led to the increased employment levels in the country (Mishel, Bernstein, & Boushey, 2003).

The high trend of the government to lay off some workers is among the reasons that resulted in the unemployment in the United Sates: In the recent years, Both the local and the central government have decided to lay off their many employees. The difficult economic times have forced various government bodies to lay off their workers rather than perusing other means of enhancing the economy. This tendency encouraged people in the private sector to imitate this example since they were afraid of the future hard economic times. People have become discouraged from seeking jobs due to the high rate of unemployment; instead, they have developed the idea that it is hard to get the job in the modern society (STATISTICS, 2012).

Different types of unemployment have intensified the increasing rate of unemployment in the United States. Some of them are such as voluntary unemployment, involuntary unemployment, frictional unemployment together with cyclical unemployment.

As revealed by the statistics, the structural unemployment contributes more to the extreme levels of unemployment in the US; this type of unemployment emerges as the result of the industrial or technological changes within the employees' field of specialization. Whereas, cyclical unemployment emerges as the result of demand of fluctuating up and down. Due to the business season like off-peak and peak. Structural unemployment takes place when the job seeking individuals fails to quickly move to fill the jobs because of the mismatch of skills. The employers have the vacant posts, but the employees skills are insufficient compared to the one needed to fill the vacancy; this issue of mismatch leads to the long-term unemployment in the US (Jacob , 2017).

While, involuntary unemployment causes high unemployment rate in the US, as compared the voluntary unemployment. The involuntary unemployment signifies the state when people seeking for employment are ready to work with the usual wage rates, but they do not get employed; this type of unemployment rises when the wage rate of the job seekers elevates above to that of the employer. In the US, the Involuntary unemployment is triggered by high job competition, high population, low technological as well as education level package (Shark,2010).

On the other hand, fictional unemployment is caused by people shifting from one job to another; this is the common cause of unemployment in the US. Frictional unemployment may be caused by low payment on the job leading to people shifting to seek better pay package (Harlan, Chico, and Ylan, 2015).

References

Amadeo, Kimberly. "7 Causes Of Unemployment". The Balance, 2017, https://www.thebalance.com/causes-of-unemployment-7-main-reasons-3305596.

Harlan, Chico, and Ylan Q. Mui. Unemployment Rate Falls to 5.1 Percent, but Americans are Not Finding Pay Increase. www.washingtonpost.com. Web. 4 September 2015

Index, C. P. (2011). US Bureau of labor statistics. Washington, DC.

Jacob, Jijo. "Top Five Reasons For High Unemployment In US". International Business Times, 2017, http://www.ibtimes.com/top-five-reasons-high-unemployment-us-265035.

Mishel, L. R., Bernstein, J., & Boushey, H. (2003). The state of working America 2002/2003. Ithaca, NY [u.a.: ILR Press.

Shark, James. The Causes of High Unemployment: Still Due to Dwindling Job Creations. www.heritage.com. Web. 24 March 2010

STATISTICS, U. B. O. L. (2012). Labor force statistics from the Current Population Survey.