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Amanda Vlad
Cindy Rogers
English 12
14 October, 2014
Unemployment In The United States

Unemployment in the United States is a very touchy subject for some. It has been a
scary topic for many people in the past and even some in the present. Many people lost
their jobs because of post war unemployment and because of the recessions that occurred
in the past. Unemployment isnt just people not having a job, there are a couple of different
types of unemployment and many intriguing facts about the history and how it affects
people and their daily lives and even how it can take lives. Unemployment is not a joke and
is to be taken seriously.
Being unemployed is defined as not having a job. Wikipedia states,
Unemployment (or joblessness) occurs when people are without work and actively
seeking work. During periods of recession, an economy usually experiences a relatively
high unemployment rate. According to International Labour Organization report, more
than 197 million people globally or 6% of the world's workforce were without a job in
2012. When times are hard many people cannot find a job causing them to become
unemployed. When people are unemployed they do have the chance to collect
unemployment. Unemployment is the money people can receive, if eligible, when they
cannot find work or have recently been laid-off. Unemployment can be measured in
several ways. A person is unemployed if they are jobless but looking for a job and available

for work. People who are neither employed nor unemployed are not in the labor force,
says Wikipedia. People on disability and or social security are also considered jobless and
not apart of the labor force.
There are three main types of unemployment, Frictional Unemployment, Structural
Unemployment, and Cyclical Unemployment. Al Krulick states that, Frictional
unemployment is always present in the economy. It comes from temporary transitions that
workers make when moving from job to job looking for better pay or a job that more
precisely matches their skills, or because of a change in locale or family situation. It is also a
reflection of new or returning workers into the labor force (e.g., graduating college
students or empty nesters rejoining the marketplace). Frictional Unemployment can also
occur when a company doesnt want to hire a person or persons because they believe that
the individuals do not meet their qualifications when in reality they do, Investopedia
explains.
Structural unemployment is created when there is a mismatch in the demographic
or industrial composition of a local economy. For example, structural unemployment can
be high in a place where there are technically advanced jobs available but the workers in
that area lack the skills to perform them, or conversely, in a locale where there are workers
available but no jobs for them to fill, says Al Krulick. There are a couple of reasons why
Structural Unemployment occurs; workers may lack the skills requires for a job, the job
they are eligible for may be too far from them and they unwilling or cannot move, or
because the wages of that job are unreasonable and they are unwilling to work for that
company, Investopedia explains. So while jobs are available, there is a serious mismatch
between what companies need and what workers can offer. Structural unemployment is

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exacerbated by extraneous factors such as technology, competition and government
policy, says Investopedia.
The last of the tree types of unemployment is Cyclical Unemployment. Al Krulick
also states that, Cyclical unemployment occurs when there is not enough demand for
goods and services in the economy at large to provide jobs for everyone who wants one.
According to Keynesian economics, it is a natural result of the boom and bust business
cycles implicit in the nature of capitalism. When businesses contract during a recessionary
cycle, workers are let go and unemployment rises. Mark Thoma also expresses that;
Cyclical unemployment is defined as workers losing their jobs due to business cycle
fluctuations in output, i.e. the normal up and down movements in the economy as it cycles
through booms and recessions over time. When business cycles are at their all time high,
cyclical unemployment will depress because the total economic output will be maximized.
And when the economic output is falling the business cycle will be low and cyclical
unemployment will begin to elevate, explains Investopedia.
Unemployment has been around since the Great Depression in the early 1930s but
has officially been tracked by the government since the early 1950s. Al Krulick states that,
The U.S. government began tracking unemployment officially in the 1950s, but estimates
of previous unemployment rates are not difficult to ascertain. The Great Depression of the
early 1930s had an unemployment rate of 23.6 percent the highest in modern times. The
countrys lowest rate 1.2 percent came in 1944 when millions of men were in uniform
and the wartime (World War II) economy was in overdrive. The lowest post-war rate was
2.9 percent in 1953. Since 1948, the end of the postwar period, the United States has
experienced 11 recessions. Over that span, the federal government has employed various

methods to push back unemployment caused by these cyclical contractions of the

economy.
More recent information on the history of unemployment in the united states was
stated by Carl H. Tong saying that, The single most important factor driving the
unemployment rate in the U.S. so high during the past three and half years has been a
severe global economic recession. The recession was caused by a financial crisis involving a
complex interplay of valuation and liquidity problems among several large U.S. financial
institutions, the disastrous failures of U.S. credit rating agencies and regulators, the
collapse of the U.S. housing market, and sharp declines in consumer wealth (The Financial
Crisis Inquiry Commission, 2011). Tong states that he believes that the unemployment
rate is likely to remain the same in the near future. He states that a weak housing market,
rapidly rising federal debts, costly healthcare systems, the inflationary threat of high oil
prices, economic competitive pressures from China, and the negative impact of Europe's
severe and protracted financial crisis are the factors why he thinks the unemployment
rates will stay and remain constant.
Because so many people have lost their jobs in the past and some in the present, it
has caused the death rate in the United States to increase. After the employment rate feel
and so many people began to lose their jobs it has caused some to become unstable and
severely depressed. Because of this, people started to commit suicide. They feel that there
is no hope in this world anymore because without a job they cant survive and or support
not only themselves but also their family. A paper by the economists Daniel Sullivan and
Till von Wachter estimates a 50 to 100 percent increase in death rates for older male
workers in the years immediately following a job loss, if they previously had been

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consistently employed. This higher mortality rate implies that a male worker displaced in
midcareer can expect to live about one and a half years less than a worker who keeps his
job, says Baker and Hassett.
Because so many men were becoming unemployed their risk of suicide had gone up
almost two percent. Like Baker and Hassett said that is not a small effect. Baker and Hassett
also said that, A recent study found that a 10 percent increase in the unemployment rate
(say from 8 to 8.8 percent) would increase the suicide rate for males by 1.47 percent. This
is not a small effect. Assuming a link of that scale, the increase in unemployment would lead
to an additional 128 suicides per month in the United States. The picture for the long-term
unemployed is especially disturbing. The duration of unemployment is the dominant force
in the relationship between joblessness and the risk of suicide.
Not only does unemployment affect the person it happens to but it also affect their
whole family in some cases. Unemployment can not only leave the person jobless but can
also lead to divorce for a significant number of families. Baker and Hassett said, The
physical and psychological consequences of unemployment are significant enough to affect
family members. The economists Kerwin Charles and Melvin Stephens recently found an 18
percent increase in the probability of divorce following a husbands job loss and 13 percent
after a wifes. Unemployment of parents also has a negative impact on achievement of their
children. In the long run, children whose fathers lose a job when they are kids have reduced
earnings as adults about 9 percent lower annually than children whose fathers do not
experience unemployment. Unemployment is a serious thing and can be carried with your
children, as they become adults just like you. Its likely that the children of an unemployed
mom and or dad can experience unemployment just like their parents.

Unemployment is the state of being without a job. It is a scary time in a persons life
when they are trying to care and provide for their family. When you feel you can no longer
be the provider for your family you can easily lose hope and want to give up, but you cant.
You have to keep going and stay positive. There are many ways that you can still get help
and provide for your family. Just because you lost your job doesnt mean that the world is
ending. Yes, it is a tremendously hard thing to go through but you can make it through that
hard time. People have been going through this since the early 1930s and look how far
they have come. Learning about unemployment has truly opened my eyes. Frictional
Unemployment, Structural Unemployment, and Cyclical Unemployment are all discussed
above, but are the three main types of unemployment. By the information provided you
could see that those three types of unemployment give you scenarios that could happen
and that frequently do. Unemployment is a serious set back and can dramatically change a
persons life. Because you are without work you dont have money to pay the bills, pay for
food, and other activities that you want to do. The Great Depression has affected us the
people of the United States, which cause unemployment. We have also been affected by
eleven recessions since 1948. The people of the United States have been through a lot and
many people have been without jobs but in the end it has taught us all lessons. There is a
greater significance than just being out of work, but it teaches us to be strong and fight for
what we deserve. We all deserve to have the ability to work and earn money just like every
other citizen who works for the government. The United States wouldnt be able to function
if we didnt have a working class to keep the stores open or the factories funning.
Unemployment isnt just the state of being unemployed but there is history and fact and a
big background of why and when it all started. It has the ability to affect your family and

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take lives but it should not be that powerful. Unemployment is a scary thing, and if it
happens to you or your family, take it day by day and do not let it affect you in a life
threatening way.

Work Cited
Baker, Dean, and Kevin Hassett. "The Human Disaster of Unemployment."The New
York Times. The New York Times, 12 May 2012. Web. 15 Oct. 2014.
Krulick, Al. "United States Unemployment - History, Causes &
Consequences." Debtorg News. N.p., n.d. Web. 12 Oct. 2014.
Thoma, Mark. "Frictional, Structural, Cyclical Unemployment Defined."EconProph.
N.p., n.d. Web. 13 Oct. 2014.
Tong, Carl H. "High Unemployment in the United States: Causes and Solutions." "" by
Tong, Carl H.; Tong, Lee-Ing; Tong, James E. N.p., 1 July 2012. Web. 15 Oct. 2014.
"Cyclical Unemployment Definition | Investopedia." Investopedia. N.p., n.d. Web. 15
Oct. 2014.
"Frictional Unemployment Definition | Investopedia." Investopedia. N.p., n.d. Web. 15
Oct. 2014.
"Structural Unemployment Definition | Investopedia." Investopedia. N.p., n.d. Web.
15 Oct. 2014.
Unemployment." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 13 Oct. 2014. Web. 15 Oct.
2014.
"Unemployment in the United States." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 15 Oct.
2014. Web. 15 Oct. 2014.