Causes of Unemployment Essay

• Topics: Jobs
• Pages: 2
• Words: 500
• Date added: May 27, 2020

Since the early 2000’s the unemployment rates of the United States seems to be constantly in flux. For the majority of this period unemployment rates were on the rise as the country was dealing with internal financial issues of its own. The fact is that high unemployment rates affect more than just a person, but the community at large. When people are out of work the rates of depression and crime seem to skyrocket. This is due to the lack of funds coming into a home which result in some less than admirable acts being committed.

Different Types of Unemployment

Economists have divided unemployment into a variety of different types to explain different causes and effects of it. Frictional Unemployment occurs because of the inevitable time disparity between losing a job and finding another one. This term is also known as search employment because it is the time spent searching or looking for a new place of employment. One example of this would be a young high school graduate student looking for a job to pay for college. Chances are they will spend a long period of time searching for a job because they have a lack of experience working. 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.

Structural unemployment is the result of a lack of job availability to a person who has a certain skill or skill set. A person with their PHD may not be able to work at McDonalds because they are overqualified for the specifics of a job. During this time a person with their PHD may not find any job openings in their specific job set. Some subsections of this include Occupational Immobility which is inability of a certain professional to transfer their abilities to another job. An out of work farmer may struggle to find work as a computer repairman. Geographical Immobility occurs when there is a job position somewhere that contradicts with a person life. For example there maybe a job in California, but there may not be any good schools for a person’s children there. Finally real wage unemployment occurs when the supply for employment outways the demand for it. This will flood the market with workers, but presents them with no work.

Unemployment presents itself in a wide variety of different ways that shape a country’s economy. As time progresses a person’s employment status may change as a result of a loss or gain of a job. Certain external factors cause a person to be unemployed such as a lack of suitable job positions as well as lack of skill set. In certain cases especially in the youth a lack of general work experience will cause them to stay unemployed for a longer period of time. With time and patience these young men and women will come across opportunities that will allow them to grow their experience.