Yearly reports, including unemployment rates, calendar of releases, and historical charts of the U.S, were updated in February 2020. The report showed that joblessness in the U.S had increased by 3.6 percent compared to 3.5 percent of the preceding months. Unemployment had risen by 139,000 employees, whereas employment levels had dropped by 89,000 employees. Joblessness had become a more significant social issue in the United States. The youth were the most affected group. Unemployment paved the way for increased poverty and social crimes. This essay will discuss four major points; the causes of joblessness in the U.S, the social ramifications of unemployment, federal initiatives to combat the problem, and public participation in promoting education and the economy. The essay will analyze joblessness through a symbolic interactionist perspective .
How Unemployment is Measured in the U.S
The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) is an indicator that shows the status of the U.S. economy for the statistics of unemployment rates. Unemployment rate shows the representation of the American economic strength and documents the overall satisfaction or dissatisfaction with the American government, states, and their leaders. In the last decade, employment rates fluctuated from a low 4.7 percent to a peak of 10.1 percent. The consequences of long-term unemployment include financial, emotional, and psychological detriments. The U.S measures unemployment using two surveys; one, the establishment report, which asks a random sample of employers the sum of people on their payroll. The second survey is a current population survey that assesses approximately 60,000 households and asks whether members are seeking employment or if they are employed. The responses are used to determine the estimated number of employed Americans.
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Causes of Joblessness in the U.S
The U.S has one of the strongest economies in the world owing to the large population of people being employed. However, a significant percentage of people are unemployed. One cause of unemployment is frictional employment, where employees transition from one job to seeing better pay or opportunities (Debt.org). Frictional employment may also result from laying off workers. Structural employment causes joblessness when the demographical composition does not match the local economy (Debt.org). For instance, a metropolitan area may have advanced jobs such that the people around are unskilled to perform the tasks. Cynical employment involves layoffs of employees when demand for goods does not match spending forcing businesses to contract further (Debt.org).
Laying off workers usually happens when the country’s GDP is slowed or goes down. The recovery from unemployment rates is slow and takes time. As of 2015, the causes of unemployment in the U.S included social ills such as increased poverty, increased risks of physical and mental health problems, and deteriorating emotional well-being (Sharone et al., 2018). Persons who are perceived or determined to be mentally ill are denied employment opportunities. However, the U.S enforces policies against discrimination in hiring or firing employees based on their gender, race, disability, or sexuality.
In the past, the U.S has blamed joblessness on a high influx of immigrants. Immigrants offer cheap labor and get employment opportunities at a faster rate. There are specific policies that prohibit the hiring of illegal immigrants in the U.S. Other causes of unemployment include having a criminal record. Ex-cons are perceived as non-reformed or may have a negative influence over the business or company; hence almost all ex-cons remain unemployed. From the symbolic interactionist perspective, society is connected through everyday social interactions of individuals (Smith, 2017). This premise makes it easier for managers to find out whether a person looking for employment had previously been incarcerated. Managers refrain from hiring ex-prisoners due to the assumption that incidences may arise, or customers may refrain from the business.
Social Ramifications of Unemployment
The social impacts of unemployment include severe financial stresses, debt, poverty, housing stresses, and homelessness. People who lose their jobs are faced with family tensions, breakdown, boredom, alienation, shame, stigma, and increased social isolation. Unemployment causes loss of confidence and self-esteem of individuals. These issues also increase with the duration of unemployment. Unemployment affects both the privileged and disadvantaged groups in society. However, the ramifications of being unemployed are worse for disadvantaged groups. The underprivileged families in the U.S reported severe health complications for their young children and themselves. The people also had disagreements with their partners, and they also experienced financial difficulties and severe housing problems.
One of the most significant social impacts of unemployment in the U.S is social class stigmas. Social class stigmas arise from social conflicts . Social conflict is defined as the tendency to change and develop because of the perpetual conflict that exists between classes. The struggle for power in society arises when two opposing social types oppose one another as they interact. Each actor exerts social influence with reciprocity to achieve dominion over the other social group. The unemployed people are automatically stereotyped as poor or lacking the means for self-sustenance (Dougherty, 2017).
Federal Initiatives to Combat Unemployment
The federal initiatives in combating unemployment take a structural-functional approach. A structural-functional perspective is an approach in sociology that asserts society is a complex system whose parts work together to promote stability and solidarity (Potts et al., 2016). The perspective posits that people’s lives are guided by social structures. The U.S federal government uses the structural-functional approach to analyze the governing of planning systems. There have been concerns about the federal reserve’s response to issues such as a dismal month for hiring.
The U.S government has two significant methods of combating poverty; one is through fiscal policy and the other monetary. The fiscal policy initiates change in taxations and spending to cool down an overheating economy. The fiscal policy generally reduces the upward pressure of prices such that even the people without employment are favored. Through the fiscal policy, the government can also decide to intervene for spenders by pumping cash through direct dispersal and unemployment insurance. The government also can purchase products and hire workers and, in the process, creating employment. However, the fiscal policy often undergoes revisions in Congress as lawmakers dispute it as excessive spending. The lawmakers oppose the fiscal policy as a necessary market intervention measure.
The monetary policy is affected by manipulating cash supply. The policy has four premises. The first is interest rates. The federal government uses interest rates to influence employment over short-term interests. Quantitative easing is also another method of monetary policy, and it involves pushing down long-term interest rates by making purchases of large amounts of debts from financial institutions. The banks become flooded and provide cheaper lending. This initiative increases cash flow and the provision of employment. The monetary policy is also responsible for setting market expectations and regulating inflation.
The U.S government uses the federal reserve to boost the economy in favor of employment. The primary method used to inflate the economy is expansionary monetary policy. Reductions of the federal funds rates lowers interests and allows businesses to secure loans. Low-interest rates also boost the housing market and favor personal spending. Fiscal unemployment is not controllable as it encompasses people in-between jobs. The fictional unemployment is healthy for the economy as it increases competitive advantage in careers.
Public Participation in Solving the Joblessness Menace
When there are no employment opportunities on the table, people are encouraged to be creative and come up with innovative ways of earning a living. Social organizations can collectively work to prevent unemployment. A social organization is a system that encourages participation in realizing an equitable world (Jelin, 2018). The youthful generation, in particular, is encouraged to take advantage of technology and create captivating content or advertise their startup businesses. The business-minded people can take loans and begin patents and startups (Glaesser & Hausman, 2020). Banks in the U.S offer loans at low interests for people with lucrative ideas. Entrepreneurs can also seek partnerships that can take a stake in their companies and return; they receive capital for managing their business. Entrepreneurship is pivotal to creating wealth and driving economic growth, innovation, and employment.
People can begin non-governmental organizations and seek funding from sponsors and the government. NGOs will eventually create more employment opportunities for other employments. Organizations should reconsider the proposition of unpaid internships. Working with no pay or guarantee of a job can reduce motivation for work. For this reason, organizations should reconsider providing paid internships to allow people to seek employment. Schools could partners with employers to enable students to learn corporate culture at an early age. The schools can align their curriculum with the skills the students need. Parents, teachers, and the community can afford children with early career guidance such that in the future they are open to seeking employment that suits them.
Conclusion
Unemployment in the U.S results from frictional, structural, and cynical employment designs. Unemployment can have detrimental effects on the mental, social, and emotional well-being of individuals. The social impacts of unemployment, according to the symbolic interactionist perspective, include; ex-cons failing to get employment because of their record. Unemployed people soon become segregated because of social conflicts that exist between social classes. The government reduces unemployment through fiscal and monetary policies. Communal reduction of joblessness includes starting startups and revising education strategies.
References
Debt.org (n.d). U.S Unemployment. https://www.debt.org/jobs/unemployment/united-states/
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Glaeser, E. L., & Hausman, N. (2020). The spatial mismatch between innovation and joblessness. Innovation Policy and the Economy , 20 (1), 233-299.
Hasan, M., Jahan, R., & Alam, M. S. (2016). Dependency, Imperialism, and Social Conflict Theories: Identification and Comparison. Journal of Asian and African Social Science and Humanities (ISSN 2413-2748) , 2 (1), 40-53.
Jelin, E. (2018). Toward a culture of participation and citizenship: challenges for a more equitable world. In Cultures Of Politics/politics Of Cultures (pp. 405-414). Routledge.
Potts, R., Vella, K., Dale, A., & Sipe, N. (2016). Exploring the usefulness of structural-functional approaches to analyze the governance of planning systems. Planning Theory , 15 (2), 162-189.
Sharone, O., Blustein, D. L., & Van Horn, C. (2018). Long-term unemployment in the United States. In The Cambridge Handbook of Social Problems (pp. 551-566). Cambridge University Press.
Smith, R. B. (2017). Symbolic interaction theory. The Encyclopedia of Juvenile Delinquency and Justice , 1-4.
