Views Of Full Employment And Unemployment example essay topic

Unemployment and the Prosperity for a Nation As the new Millennium approaches, our Nation's ability to prosper depends on our ability to achieve economic expansion. In order to achieve economic expansion though, all resources will have to be used to their full potential. Workers are a vital part of the process and need to reach 100% of their potentials. Unfortunately, unemployment is also part of the equation which leaves a small percentage of the workers who are willing to work, out.

That means that the number of people looking for work are not a contributing factor of the social and economic expansion. The percentage of people out of work, out of any given country may vary significantly. In continents such as Europe, they may be in double digit numbers while the US the numbers are at an approximate 5.3% of unemployed personnel. The ideal unemployment rate according to some economist is approximately 5.5%, even though that number can fluctuate to as high as 7% by some analyst. By any guide, the number of unemployed people in this nation reach astounding figures, but according to some analyst the number is vital for growth. The concept of unemployment is viewed in two ways.

One, unemployment is a vital part of the economy's social well being. The other view is that of the individuals who has been faced or will face unemployment, say that more should be done to get everyone working and not stop at a certain percentage. The people who are unemployed suffer greatly due to this social law. Economist state that this nations economy is dependent upon a conservative working five and a half percent margin that helps develop this nation economically.

This paper will explore the views of full employment and unemployment. First of all, if we were to examine full employment, we would clearly see that every single American that would like to work, would be working. Since, working happens to be one of the basic needs in our society, it would indicate a healthy society. Americans stress levels seen during the relatively last few years over job loss would be virtually eradicated. Americans would be able to work in happier atmospheres, since they would not be bound to unfavorable working conditions and would have a better say in the wages that they earn since they would not be bound to their jobs afraid that they would not be able to find another job. Families would have a greater opportunity to stay together since jobs would be more secure and stable.

Even the moral of working personnel would go up dramatically, since the threat of a job loss would be gone as well. It would not mean that people would not get fired, it would just mean that people who end up without a job today would be able to resort to other opportunities tomorrow. People would have a real chance to cater their careers to their desires, much better than today and would be enthused about their work as well. Full employment has been enjoyed in countries like Switzerland where during the 1960's and part of the 1970's were outstanding years where all people who desired a job had a job. The country even had to seek for workers in surrounding countries to meet the production needs. Switzerland was a working model to the world as to what to aim for.

Living standards were enjoyed by all and the country flourished. Full employment eventually ended by the mid 1970's and Switzerland has not been able to repeat such wonderful results. Then we have unemployment. We know that unemployment certainly has serious consequences. The employee, the employee's family and the public as a whole, all suffer from unemployment.

Studies have been done and have found that depression is one of the effects on unemployment. When an individual looses his or her job, they may become very depressed, and encounter feelings of no self worth. Unemployment has no boundaries though, it does not stop at just destroying one person, but rather it extends to the person's family straining the families ties. Since so many families depend on every income that comes into the household these days, fights may start to occur. Many of the fights that break out in many of these situations are mostly about money.

Money does not make happiness, but in this case it brings misery. Eventually, unemployment takes a bigger role by reducing the income that would have been generated to many of the local business and may lead to a recession. Some businesses may start to lay off some of their employees because the revenues are not as high and may not be able to afford all of its employees. The effects of a few unemployed has a trickle down effect that works like dominos, creating higher losses as it parades through society.

Everyone is affected by unemployment even if its not happening to you directly. It is interesting to hear that some economist see 5.5% of unemployment as a good sign. Many economist disagree about what the bottom line may be, but do agree that without a marginal unemployment rate, the country will begin to experience inflation. It is by having a slow, low unemployment rate that we begin to see the wages advance thus creating a bigger consumer market which in turn causes a rise in the demand for goods. If the demand is not kept at a medium level, inflation will prevail, thus creating a hollow market.

In this sense, unemployment acts as a barrier between inflation and the steady market. Analyst have come to know how the markets work, and how it fairs. They know that there are many other facets to today's economy and cannot predict in perfect accuracy where it will go, but can help steer it in the right direction. Unemployment is only one way that we can provide for a balanced society, but are making strides to lower the number of people without jobs. This country has not seen rates like 5.3% in quite sometime and may start to show signs of a recovering market. Especially since there has been a high turnabout in the job market since the 1980's.

How a person becomes entrapped in the grasp of unemployment varies. Some lose their jobs by force while other choose to be unemployed temporarily. In the case of a person who is out of work and actively looking for a new job can be recognized as a person who is in frictional unemployment. That person may be out of work involuntarily because of an unplanned lapse in work from the transition of one job to another. Yet another aspect that is affects so many, is what is known as cyclical unemployment or a person's inability to stay employed due to a shrinking market. The downsizing of a market has deep threads and may take years to recover, largely because it is part of the business cycle.

While everyone sees the harms of unemployment, many fail to see the benefits of unemployment. In a prima face case, unemployment marks a negative check-mark on society indicating a weak economy not working at full potential. What is not seen, are the benefits of a the unemployed. For one, the people who are out of work keep other members of society aware that they too can become unemployed and not be able to find reemployment as easily as thought, thus making people appreciate what they have. It use to be that once an employee would start to work for a fairly stable company, it would be expected to have that employee stay there until retirement. Loyalty meant something, and most employers would benefit from the wealth of knowledge that the employee would have from being there so long.

When I was entering the job market at the beginning of the 1990's, I managed to see some of that life when I went to work for Von's. There I saw people who had been there practically all of their working career with 20, 30 even 40 years of service. The people had their own community and were almost like tight family. Unfortunately, like it was mentioned earlier, there is no avoiding the issue. Due to a reduction in force, many of the long term employees were forced to retire or get laid-off. We live in a society where words like! yen Corporate Downsizing!

|, ! | Mergers! |, ! yen Acquisitions! |, ! yen Buyouts! |, and! yen Reduction In Size! | are all part of the normal everyday vocabulary out in the business world, (its no wonder why so many Americans feel little self-worth). Today's employees have a false sense of security when it comes to their jobs. The work force has experienced a high volume of turn-moil especially during the high tech era. With many of the new jobs being associated with computers, the American worker had to reinvent themselves to compete out in the job market. Change is scary, but so is being unemployed.

1) Welch, Patric J. & Welch, Gerry F., ECONOMICS: Theory and Practice, 5th ed., The Dryden Press - Hard court Brace College Publishers, "|1995, 92, 89, 82 2) Kansas City Department of Human Resources, Unemployment -- How It's Measured web 3) LBO, Unemployment: One person's idleness is another's comfort web 4) ECONOMICS: THE PLAIN FACTS IN PLAIN LANGUAGE web 5) UNEMPLOYED AND ON WELFARE? web.