...Unemployment Policies in the United States Amanda Bowman Russel Riggs American National Government February 8, 2015 In the United States, unemployment is a common occurrence. At this point you’d think that we would have pretty much everything figured out as far as being able to keep our people afloat financially. But slowly the middle class is disappearing, and there are a lot more Americans trying to survive on an unemployment income. The federal government has a lot of pull in whether people are eligible to receive unemployment benefits, and the amount that they’re entitled. The policies that go into making these benefits available to the unemployed have good points and bad points. The economy in the United States definitely isn’t where it should be in the past few years. A lot of people have been laid off because of either their company is downsizing or they aren’t making enough money to stay open and pay their employees. “More than four years into an economic recovery, the unemployment rate remains abnormally high and long-term joblessness a major problem. The employment crisis has exacerbated longer term U.S. labor market trends of rising inequality, tepid real wage growth for most workers, and a decline in middle-wage jobs” (Katz 2014). And in this sediment, there are thousands of Americans that are jobless and there doesn’t seem to be any relief any time soon. The specific policy that allows an individual to receive unemployment benefits actually gave...
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...labor market stays in equilibrium, with no demand deficient or real-wage unemployment, there are numbers of unemployed people. That phenomenon is called a natural unemployment. By using structural unemployment as our economic concept, we are going to see how a change in the structure of economy could cause a natural unemployment. Recently, Turkey’s unemployment rate rose from 10.9 percent in December of 2014 to 11.3 percent in January of 2015. Slow pace of gross domestic production expansion had caused expansion in the workforce. As a result 300,000 people that worked in agriculture and construction sectors lost their jobs. Unemployment is a situation in economy when people who are willing and able to work can’t get a job....
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...The Resolution to Raising the Unemployment Rate in the United States Precious Johnson CM 104-04 Professor Johnson 8/24/2010 The Resolution to Raising the Unemployment Rate in the United States There are a lot of things in life that are not guaranteed or secure, therefore people should live their life to the best of their ability. Everyone wants the feeling of job security, but the reality is there is none. The rising unemployment rate amongst the United States citizens has been a major problem for a few years now that is greatly affecting our economy. The problem of the rise in the unemployment rate in the U.S can be solved by big business’ creating more jobs in their companies, banks approving more business loans for small businesses, and the government giving out stimulus packages to the people to help boost the economy. This is a problem that must be solved if the United States wants to move forward in a better economy. The spike in unemployment has pushed some private sectors to create more positions within their company, but it still isn’t enough to improve this difficult time the U.S. is facing. Irwin and Montgomery (2010) reported “private employers added only 83,000 jobs in June, the government said Friday, too few to keep up with growth in the working-age population” (p. 1). The employment rate is not getting better, but it is dropping at a slow gradual rate. Americans have practically given up on joining the labor force altogether...
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...I define a social problem as a negative event or circumstance, that effects a wide range of people, but is also viewed as an issue to a wide range of people. Further, something would unlikely be classified as a social problem if only three people saw it as a serious issue. When I think of social problems domestic violence, abortion, homelessness, and unemployment come to mind, just to name a few. I am going to focus on unemployment. Unemployment is an issue that not only effects the US, but effects other nations around the world. Although the unemployment rate in the US is about 2% lower than it was in 2014, it is still an issue, especially for those who are personally effected by it. The unemployment rate for the US is currently 4.80%, according...
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...Reducing Unemployment and Underemployment in the United States Name Institutional Affiliation Reducing Unemployment and Underemployment in the United States Reducing Unemployment Unemployment and underemployment are one of the main economic concern in many countries or states in the world today. It is a biting problem in many economies, and governments are always seeking a new way of solving this problem (Miller, 2011, p. 14) According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, unemployment is a situation where a person does not have a job, but have actively searched in the past four weeks (American Vocational Association, 2008, p. 24). It also includes people who have been laid off for more than seven days. There are many reasons why people end up being unemployed. Understanding the reasons for unemployment is essential in coming up with a solution to the high rate of unemployment in the United States. The most important causes of unemployment are structural, cyclical and seasonal unemployment (Borts, 2010, p. 28). The United States has experienced approximately 11 recessions since 1948 when the postwar ended. The different government regimes have tried various methods over the years to turn around recessions and reduce the high rates of unemployment. Some government regimes have embarked on tax while others have embarked on stimulus spending. Unemployment rate in America remained high at 7.6 % in June 2013 (Clague, 2009,...
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...Reducing Unemployment and Underemployment in the United States Name Institutional Affiliation Reducing Unemployment and Underemployment in the United States Reducing Unemployment Unemployment and underemployment are one of the main economic concern in many countries or states in the world today. It is a biting problem in many economies and governments are always seeking a new way of solving this problem (Miller, 2011). According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, unemployment is a situation where a person does not have a job, but have actively searched in the past four weeks (Clague, 2009). It also includes people who have been laid off for than seven days. There are many reasons why people end up being unemployed. Understanding the reasons for unemployment is essential in coming up with a solution to the high rate of unemployment in the United States. The most important causes of unemployment are structural, cyclical and seasonal unemployment (Borts, 2010). The United States has experienced approximately 11 recessions since 1948 when the postwar ended. The different government regimes have tried various methods over the years to turn around recessions and reduce the high rates of unemployment. Some government regimes have embarked on tax while others have embarked on stimulus spending. Unemployment rate in America remained high at 7.6 % in June 2013 (Clague, 2009). The Bureau of Labor Statists reports on all matters relating to unemployment in the United States. In America...
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...to pick topics that I know something about, and that led me to the first political issue that both countries face: unemployment. The United States' unemployment rate is, as you probably know, pretty high. In February of 2010, just one month ago, America's unemployment rate was 9.70 percent (TradingEconomics). That's just shy of it's ten-percent unemployment rate a month prior. I was included in that unemployed ten-percent. Having worked for Sprint for a year and a half, my whole branch was outsourced and laid off last June. Getting a new job was nearly impossible, and I found myself surviving on the unemployment benefits provided to me by our government. Before I knew it those benefits ran out, conveniently around Christmas time. And even though I was given a ten week extension thanks to President Obama, I realized that I couldn't live off of those benefits forever. By definition, unemployment is “the percentage or number of people who are involuntarily unemployed” (Dictionary.com). Every major country has it's own unemployment rate, some larger than others. Japan is no different. The unemployment rate in Japan has almost always been less than the unemployment rate in the United States. In January of 2010, the unemployment rate in Japan was 4.90 percent (TradingEconomics), a little under half of America's unemployment rate that month. Both the United States and Japan are within the top fifteen countries with the...
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...of goods and services in a specific country or region. The United States of America is known across the entire world as having the largest economy. The economy in the United States today is now where near what it was many years ago. The current economic situation has the country trying to regain its high economic status. The United States economy is really not good in its current state, but somewhat better than it was five years ago. Many people are not aware of the problem that we have in this country. I think that the biggest question in this country in reference to the economy is how we got to this place, with this economy. There is so much blame and finger pointing as to how the United States economy ended up this way. My opinion is that part of the problem in this country is that we depend on other countries to produce things for us that we could or should produce ourselves. The United States economy has changed and somewhat stayed the same as compared to five years ago. Points in this paper that will be discussed will be exports, imports, interest rates, inflation and unemployment. Exports are defined as goods or services produced in the United States and sold in another country. (O'sullivan) Imports are goods and services produced in a foreign country and purchased by residents of the home country. (O'sullivan) The United States is the world’s largest importer. The main import of the United States is crude oil and the problem with oil prices has been the...
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...Unemployment in the United States Unemployment is something that has been problematic in the United States for over a hundred years. Throughout the last century the United States has seen Unemployment rates that have been high as well as rates that have been low. During the past two or three weeks I have been researching the topic beginning with October 29th, 1929, the start of the great depression, all the way until modern day. It has been an interesting few weeks and I’m excited to analyze everything that I have discovered. The Great Depression is considered to be the largest and longest lasting crash that the American economy has taken to date. The Great Depression really began during the summer of 1929. That summer American consumer spending began to fall, and this caused unsold product to gather. While this was occurring the prices of stock kept rising, and by October of 1929 the stock prices were unreasonably high. October 24th is known as black Thursday; on this day nearly 13 million shares were trades which scared the people of Wall Street. October 29th 1929 fell on a Tuesday that year. This was the day that the great depression truly started. Almost 16 million shares were traded on this day. It created a panic on Wall Street and soon after millions of investors lost all of their money. The loss of money in circulation caused consumer spending to drop, and this caused the supply of products to drop. Many companies went out of business, and those who didn’t lay off...
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...factors, four will be explored through the course of this specific critique and it should be noted, that the specific nation to be observed is the United States of America. The specific factors to be observed in the United States’ economy are their unemployment, their expectations, consumer income, and interest rates. In addition to identifying these four factors and their economic effects, there will be identified what fiscal policies have been put in place by the United States government in order to aid the economy and finally, there will be an evaluation of these fiscal policies regarding their effectiveness from both a Keynesian economic perspective and that of a classical economist. Unemployment A nation’s unemployment rate, as can be expected, is calculated by dividing the total sum unemployed persons by the number of total persons available for within the nation. This formula yields the number that is considered the unemployment rate for whichever nation is in question, in this case though, the nation that is the focus of our investigation is the United States. According to the Bureau of Labor and Statistics website (2015), “the unemployment situation in the United States has been reduced to 5.5 percent. This decrease as reported in February of 2015 signifies an overall decrease of 1.2 percent in the United States unemployment rate just within the last year alone” (Bureau of Labor and Statistics, 2015), but the question is then asked, “What allowed these changes to take...
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...The Current Macroeconomic Situation in the United States Name: Institution: Abstract The policy makers in every economy play an imperative role in regulating the macroeconomic activities with the intention of maintaining the economic stability. In essence, economic stability is vital for improving the social welfare of citizens, as well as the economic growth. The current United States economic outlook is not good. The average American is not doing well though there has been an improvement in market performance. The 2009 financial crisis continues to affect the United States economy. High unemployment level is the major economic issues that the country is still experiencing. The unemployment rate is still high although there has been a small improvement in job creation. As a result of unemployment, the consumer confidence as well as business sentiment continues suffering. At present, inflation is not a critical threat to the United States. The Gross Domestic Product is flat. In fact, the growth of real GDP has been excessively slow. The monetary and fiscal policies can help the policy makers in solving the present unemployment problem facing the country. In particular, the policymakers ought to consider implementing both expansionary monetary and fiscal policies since the current level of unemployment is essentially cyclical. With regards to the expansionary fiscal policy, the policy makers should implement it through taxation...
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...in the United States has assisted the country to thrive and be successful. Free trade has made its mark on Americans for wealth and prestige. Free trade has brought Americans accustomed to a way of living and that is why there is free between states. There are other factors as to why free trade is free between states and why free trade is not necessarily free for countries. The following will explain. Free trade has given Americans a benefit in the United States. The NAFTA (North American Free Trade Agreement) has given Americans the ability to trade freely with Canada and Mexico. It is only beneficial that there be free trade between the United States, Canada, and Mexico. All three feed off of each other and will only benefit from each other’s resources and abilities. For example, USDA.gov explains, “In 2007, Canada and Mexico were, respectively, the first and second largest export markets for U.S. agricultural products” (usda.gov). Exports to the two markets combined were greater than exports to the next six largest markets combined. This only allows for trade to increase between the two countries. Canada is benefitting the same exact way. With trading with the United State, Canada is benefitting from the agriculture that they are lacking in the North. With the three countries so closely tied together, this is how and why free trade is evident in the States. There is a reason why it is not like that with other countries. Canada, United States, and Mexico...
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...Unemployment From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Jump to: navigation, search For payments paid to unemployed people, see unemployment benefits. Unemployed men outside a soup kitchen in Depression-era Chicago, 1931. Unemployment (or joblessness) occurs when people are without work and actively seeking work.[1] The unemployment rate is a measure of the prevalence of unemployment and it is calculated as a percentage by dividing the number of unemployed individuals by all individuals currently in the labor force. During periods of recession, an economy usually experiences a relatively high unemployment rate.[2] According to International Labour Organization report, more than 197 million people globally are out of work or 6% of the world's workforce were without a job in 2012.[3] There remains considerable theoretical debate regarding the causes, consequences and solutions for unemployment. Classical economics, New classical economics, and the Austrian School of economics argue that market mechanisms are reliable means of resolving unemployment. These theories argue against interventions imposed on the labor market from the outside, such as unionization, bureaucratic work rules, minimum wage laws, taxes, and other regulations that they claim discourage the hiring of workers. Keynesian economics emphasizes the cyclical nature of unemployment and recommends government interventions in the economy that it claims will reduce unemployment during recessions. This theory focuses...
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...Unemployment Name: Institution: Date: Unemployment refers to the situation which occurs when individuals who are actively seeking jobs are unable to find them (Brophy, 2010). On the other hand, unemployment rate refers to the prevalence of unemployment. Unemployment is normally used as a measure of the state of the economy. Before the industrial revolution in the United States, the production of goods was not systemized. Peasants produced goods for their own benefit and for that of their landlords. For this reason, they were not paid and could not be employed or unemployed. There was therefore no unemployment. However, the industrial revolution began which required the employment system (Maddison, 1982). Because of the search for cheap labor, industrial revolution brought about labor exploitation and unemployment. Unemployment in the United States started in the year 2008 when the private sector fell into a depression. This was as a result of the global recession. Since then, Unemployment has been an issue to date (Brophy, 2010). Unemployment is considered to be the main cause of poverty. As a result, people may not afford necessities which in turn lead to various businesses performing poorly. This in turn causes the laying off of more people and this becomes a chain reaction. Unemployment is also a problem because it the unemployed may not afford to pay bills thus lowering their standard of living. Furthermore, the number of homeless people in the United States has...
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...Inflation, Unemployment, and the Monetary Policies in the United States Macroeconomics is all about the economy on a large, or aggregate scale. That means a focus on the portions of the economy that deal with inflation, GDP and how it changes over time, recessions, expansions, the business cycle, and government policies that influence the macro economy. The articles I have chosen focus on all of these ideas, but have a more direct focus on it inflation, unemployment, and monetary policy. Jerome Powell is the head of the Federal Reserve (Fed) which is responsible for Monetary Policy in the United States. The Fed’s decisions have a direct correlation on the macro economy. The Fed and their management of the United States is a difficult task,...
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