Seth Bradley
The article that I
read for this blog is called, "Unemployment Rate Goes Down as Americans
Give Up on Work." This article talked about Americans and what are the
reasons that the unemployment rate did decrease from January. The main answer
is that people are tired of looking for work and they have decided to just up
on searching for a job. An economist that viewed the results from the
unemployment rates said they were so surprised at how many people had in fact
given up looking for jobs. Also, the article discussed that women did not take
the type of decrease in jobs as men did when the economy starting going down in
2008-09. The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that the unemployment rate was
down to 7.7 percent from 7.9 percent. This seems like it is a good sign, in
fact some people are very excited to hear about the decrease in unemployment.
However, this decrease in percentage has a lot to do with the fact that people
have just stopped looking for jobs, and gave up on the economy. The employment
to population ratio was still at 58.6 percent which is unchanged from last
time. The employment numbers that came out on Friday were a shock to economists’,
but they still show that our economic recovery is still not doing a very strong
job so far, after taking place for four years already. The Bureau of Labor
Statistics feel that people not having job opportunities is what is
discouraging them, and making them stop looking for what they need.
When I think of the
people that have given up on a job opportunity I think of the cyclical unemployment,
which is the unemployment due to downturns in the business cycle. I feel that
these people had good jobs and something happened that made them lose their
jobs. That is something that those people cannot control, but there are a few
policy measures that they can do to attempt to fix the problem. One thing that
they could try is going to job programs and search around for jobs that are looking
for the skill set they have to offer. If that is not an option then, instead of
giving up, try to find a short term job that will give some type of cash intake
and continue searching for a better job.
As long as the
unemployment rate continues to decline it will seem that our economy is
beginning to come back to what we hope for. However, if more and more people
continue to give up then that will also affect the percentage a good amount as
well. I feel that people, no matter how discouraged, need to try their hardest
to keep looking for a job and do not give up.
Zach Humphries
ReplyDeleteSeth, I agree with your points about the false hope the drop in the unemployment rate may have created. The recent drop in unemployment may have came from those unemployed people giving up on finding a job. After a long period of recession most people have finally given up on looking for jobs. I agree with you when you say that people should continue to find some sort of an income. No matter how insignificant a part-time job may be, something is better than nothing. In our current recovery phase the people that have given up on finding a job may need to swallow their pride and find any job. Most Americans believe they are to good to work certain jobs, which may have been true years ago, but now it does not. I pass many “now hiring” signs at many places, for example Taco Bell, and if you only have an high school education, why not apply? Most of those people may have had well paying jobs before the recession but now find themselves unemployed and not willing to find lesser jobs. Those are the people who should be working any job possible, and not living on welfare or unemployment.
The drop in the unemployment rate has some people hopeful in the slow recovery in our country, but most likely it is from situations like the one above. The recovery speed of our economy has frustrated many, and is apparent to see from how slowly the unemployment rate is moving. As you said the employment to population ratio has not changed from last month. That shows that there was little improvement in the economy. So when the employment rate dropped and people assumed that there was growth in the economy, I agree with you when you said this might have created a false hope. Unfortunately it is most likely that our unemployment rate only changed because people quit looking for employment. That is evident when you provided the example of the employment to population ratio has not changed.
I also agree with you when you said those who lost their job due to cyclical unemployment, should use the job programs that have become more common to see. The skills they developed at a previous employment can probably be used somewhere and with the job programs available; the unemployed should take advantage of this. Hopefully our economy will begin to pick up soon, and we can have an actual decrease in the unemployment rate.
The Article, "Unemployment Rate Goes Down as Americans Give Up on Work." Is a lot similar to the article I read, “Job Growth Steady, but Unemployment Rises to 7.9%”. The article talks about how people have giving up on the search for jobs. With a lot of new job available now the unemployment rate is not dropping any quicker. People are tired of looking for work and they have decided to just give up on searching for a job. The article says that employment to population ratio was still 58.6 percent which is still quite high.
ReplyDeleteWhen you said people are giving up on job search is like cyclical unemployment, is true. When working people loss their job due to cuts in their company it is very hard to find a new job. Structural unemployment becomes the biggest problem. When people loss jobs they have been doing for the past ten years. It is all they know, they have no other skills to look for another job. Leaving them desperate for any job and when they cannot find one they give up.
People cannot just stop looking for jobs, they need to keep looking if they want the economy to spike back up. As long as the unemployment rate keeps declining our economy will be back in no time. The government needs to keep working hard to create new jobs for workers who are still looking for jobs. They also need to find a way to encourage the discourage workers to keep looking.
The article I read talked about how there is still 12.3 million workers remaining that still need jobs. Also that they have been unemployed for about 35 weeks which can be very discouraging. Without the incentive to keep looking for job the unemployment rate will drop back down. Workers cannot control cyclical unemployment which is the unemployment due to insufficient aggregate demand. They can control the labor force number. They can drive it up or down. Workers cannot just leave it to just the government. If they want to help fix the economy they have to do their part.