The economists describe unemployment as a condition of jobless within an economy. Unemployment is lack of utilization of resources and it eats up the production of the economy. It can be concluded that unemployment is inversely related to productivity of the economy.
Unemployment generally defined as the number of persons (It is the percentage of labor force depends on the population of the country) who are willing to work for the current wage rates in society but not employed currently. Unemployment reduces the long run growth potential of the economy. When the situation arises where there are more other resources for the production and no man power leads to wastage of economic resources and lost output of goods and services and this has a great impact on government expenditure directly.
High unemployment causes less consumption of goods and services and less tax payments results in higher government borrowing requirements. The impact of the unemployment is seen with the individuals and household curtailing the consumption drastically to meet financial obligation and factors like this have adverse impact on the whole economy. It also reduces the output of goods and services which could have produced by unemployed labor force. An economy is producing substantially below its potential if unemployment rate is extremely high, thus everybody in the society loses by consuming and enjoying less because less is produced for distribution.
Causes for Unemployment
There are several causes for unemployment and it depends on prevailing conditions of economy and also on individual’s perception. The following are some of the causes for unemployment:
- Change in technology is one of the serious cause for unemployment. As the technology changes employers search for people with latest technical caliber. They look for better substitutes. Job cuts due to change in the technology brings unemployment problem in the society.
- Recession is prime factor for unemployment in most of the countries. Because of the financial crisis in one country can affect the other countries economy due to globalization.
- Changes in the global Markets are another important factor. Any country economy adversely affect when its exports are down the line due to changes in global markets, and increase in price. With this production suffers and companies unable to pay on time and this increases the rate of unemployment.
- Job dissatisfaction by many employees is another cause, this happens when less attention given by the employers on the performance of employee. This leads to lack of interest and desire to work and unemployment becomes inevitable, as employees deliberately loose their jobs.
- Employment discrimination based on the caste, religion, race etc., in the companies, an employee looses the ease to work in the organization.
- Negative attitude by the employees towards the employers creates unhealthy environment in the organization. And this ultimately leads to unemployment.
Effects Unemployment on Economy
Unemployment rate depends on the economy to economy. In developed countries like United Sates and Europe the unemployment rate considered to be low because many people are self employed people and working in agriculture. In countries where there are less self employed and more population with less resources causes unemployment.
Unemployment affects the economy adversely as the productivity falls below the normal level. When there is high rate of unemployment in the country, government has to suffer extra borrowing burden due to decrease in the production and less consumption of goods and services by the people. Not only the unemployed people consume less its even employed has weak purchasing power due to fear about their loss of their jobs. Unemployed not working and not contributing for income generation of the economy, but also they claim benefits from the government and it is an additional cost for the economy as a whole.
Social Effects of Unemployment
Not only unemployment problem suffers the economy, even there are many social affects too. The following are some of the social affects of unemployment:
- Loss of skills: When there is unemployment in the society, people loose their skills due to no usage and it causes human capital loss.
- Mental illness: There will be loss of self confidence, frustration, negative attitudes towards common things when there is loss of income, and a person’s self-esteem gets hurt due to these mental illnesses.
- Financial obstacles: Unemployment brings financial obstacles in the family. People cannot meet their financial obligations on time and it brings frustration among family members, brings tension at home and may leads to suicides .
- Increase crime rate: When there is unemployment in the society crime rate increases. When people don’t have disposable income they can go to any extent like theft, robbery and also murders in order to survive their livelihood.
- Political instability: Due to unemployment people lose trust on government and their administration and this may bring political instability.
- Insecurity among existing employees: When the economy is facing unemployment problem it brings insecurity among the existing employees and their purchasing power decreases due to fear or insecurity on their jobs.
- Poor standard of living: Unemployment causes poor standard of living as competition for jobs will increase and people accept for less salaries and their standard of living will decrease due to their low income.
- Employment Gap: Unemployment brings employment gap in the companies for hiring a suitable person and for an individual who is out of job has to find another one in difficult situations. This brings the gap in income generation.
Unemployment – Challenges to Government
Several policies have been made to reduce the unemployment problem in the economy. Government just needs to focus on execution of these policies and work out hard in alleviating this problem. Government can expand capital projects like new roads, constructions of new hospitals and major infrastructural projects which can become a platform in creation for more jobs in the economy. It increases income generation to the economy.
Reduction in taxation can bring higher purchasing power to the consumers. It gives some relaxation to consumers in spending their disposable income. Government should take proper steps in investment decisions on huge projects like iron and steel, aviation etc., proper policies are to be made to boost up these projects thereby creating employment opportunities. Proper recruitment, training and development are to be needed by every company in order to increase the capabilities of employees, and to enhance their skills and shows great performance in up bringing of the organization. Government can take initiation in reducing the interest rates and it enhances the demand for credit and improves savings by the individuals. Necessary steps are to be taken by the government in increasing the productivity for the overall development of the country and reducing the unemployment problem in the economy.
Unemployment – Challenges to Individuals
It is not only the responsibility of the government to take initiation in reducing the unemployment problem, even individuals has to take step to overcome this problem. Lot of adjustments are to be done by the individuals to come out of this situation. With out taking hasty decisions like suicide, frustration they can plan and do proper adjustments like debt adjustments, expend their liquid assets when it is required, cut down their expenditures and also encourage other family members to find jobs so that they can compensate in income generation.
An individual has to increase their capabilities and participate in proper counseling and training sessions to improve their performance levels and enhance their skills. They have to think about self employment apart their job with the help of their family members. This also improves their standard of living.