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Mason Cohen
Cindy Rogers
English 12
October 17, 2014

The Unemployment Crisis in America

What is unemployment? Put simply, it is the condition of many in the world today,
who do not have a paid job, but are available and able to work. As of September 2014, the
unemployment rate in the U.S. has gone down to 5.9%. What does that mean? The U.S.
Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) comes up with a survey every month with the total
number of unemployed in the U.S. To
calculate the rate of unemployment, they
take the total population people in the
labor force and divide it by the total
number of unemployed people who are
able and available to work.

Unemployment rate from 2004- 2014

The BLS agency distributes much information in relation to the current employment
situation. It is their job to measure labor market activity, working conditions, and price
changes in the economy.(Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2014) On a monthly basis, BLS will
release information based on their research and analysis to the public. This process has
been practiced for well over 100 years since this agencies birth. However, since the BLS

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was created there have been new developments and changes in reports. For example, it
was only until the mid to late 20th century that black people were even recognized and able
to be paid to have a job. Now, people of all races are considered in the unemployment
statistics. Similarly, it was only until recently that people between the ages of 16-19 would
be counted separately from the employment rate calculations due to the evolving economy.

Currently, Americas unemployment rate is declining slowly. Just in the last year, the
rate has declined one percent. This one percent change means that 1.6 million people have
gone back into employment. Yet, since the 2007-2008 recession, the need for jobs has
decreased from the peak of 11 million to now about 7 million jobs needed. Will the
situation continue to get better? One source predicts that the rate of 7.6 percent in 2013
will decrease to 5.5 percent by 2024 do to the fiscal years of 2012 to 2024. (Statista, 2014)
However a big problem still arises. The dilemma is that the average time that a person is
unemployed is about 37.1 weeks, according to Matthew Philips (2014) from Bloomberg
BusinessWeek. The Economic Policy Institute found that more than a third of the
unemployed have been jobless for six months or more. (Economic Policy Institute, 2014)
The question then arises, where are the unemployed workers and why are they not
working?

In the early 1900s, the world suffered from a Great Depression. This depression left
many without jobs and money. Germany was a country that was especially affected by this
event. From 1926 to 1932, the number of unemployed Germans rose from 2 million to 6
million. Germany relied mostly on American loans. When the great depression started

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effecting America, they closed the market and no longer gave out loans to other countries.
Germany was affected greatly by this because America was its biggest buyer. Germany had
faced its biggest economical crisis in history. Many, at the time, blamed the German
government for the lack of help given to the people. The governments solution was to
create more money to try and stimulate the economy. This only led to hyperinflation. With
Germany in a wreck, many pointed to new ways of ruling. This would lead to Hitlers
extreme nationalistic way of governing.

Another country that is constantly in an economic crisis is Zimbabwe. The poverty

rate is about 80 percent while the unemployment rate runs at about 95 percent. This
country has the worlds largest rate of unemployed people. However, it is a very
undeveloped country with only about 5.4 million people employed. What about America in
the 21st century? It is a highly developed country that allows all people of all sorts to work.
It has a government that is stable. Why is America in an unemployment crisis? Since there
is such a large pool of qualified workers, especially at this day in age, many are scrambling
to either find jobs or keep the ones they currently have.

Consider the women workforce in the United States. Generally, women make
about 78 cents for every dollar that a man makes. (National Womens Law Center
[NWLC], 2014) This leaves many women working longer hours and constantly on the
move to find a better paying job. The fight for a job is especially hard for women over
the age of 55. A statistic shows that women 55 and older experience the highest rates
of long-term unemployment and the longest spells of unemployment, among women by

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age. (NWLC, 2014)

Another problem arises when it comes to retirement. When men and women
come of the age to retire they refrain. Many conclude that they are still in good health so
they might as well keep working and make more money. Others cant afford to retire.
Some just enjoy the working environment. They would rather keep their job regardless
of if they need it or not because they enjoy doing it. Retirement is designed to let older
ones stop working and let other fill take over their previous workspace. It becomes a
problem when most people dont want to retire because the workspaces dont become
available for new employees. Therefor, people stay in an unemployment condition
while they wait for job opportunities to be available.

The longer someone is unemployed, the less attention they get from recruiters
and the less vigorously they hunt for work. (The Economist Newspaper, 2014) People
who have been unemployed for a great amount of time, find it harder to be employed
again. One reason for this is technology. Todays technology world is moving as fast as
the earth itself. Those who are not immersed in the constant updating of the media tend
to be outdated. A lot of people who have been out of work for more than a few years
have almost become useless to employers seeking people for jobs. Technology is also
making it possible to outsource most work. People in other countries are competing
with Americans for jobs. However, these foreign workers are willing to work for below
minimum wage to do the same job.

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Can politics change the condition of unemployment? Both republicans and
democrats have proposed solutions to solve the unemployment crisis. What are these
proposals? The democrats have the idea that giving handouts, or creating new jobs will
cure this problem. Whereas, republicans believe raising taxes towards the wealthier class
and increasing government spending will give more jobs to the unemployed. Up until today
neither ideas have proved successful. Throughout Obama and Bushs terms, the
unemployment situation has only gotten worse.

A problem also arises with those who are already employed. Are they
underemployed? People that are underemployed are those workers that are highly skilled
but working in low paying jobs, workers that are highly skilled but work in low skill jobs
and part-time workers that would prefer to be full-time. (Investopedia, 2014) Many
problems face these workers. For example, they are being paid minimum wage. For the last
20 years, minimum wage has proven to put many below the poverty line. They are not able
to have certain necessities and they cannot provide for their families. Those who fall into
the category of underemployment have decided to quit these low paying jobs to try and
find better ones with the skills that they have. This cycle creates even more unemployed
people.

A large amount of underemployed people, are recently graduated college students.

These students have completed their classes, sometimes taking them up to eight years of
schooling. When they graduate, however, they cannot attain the job that they reached out
for. They end up falling back on a part time job at a fast food restaurant or a clothing store

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that pays minimum wage as they wait to be hired in the job they trained so long for. This
waiting period could take years. Some decide to continue in the underemployment stage,
while others quit and join the unemployment line as they wait to be picked up.

It is, no doubt, evident that unemployment is a serious crisis, not just in America, but
all around the world. Although predictions say the unemployment rate will get better, it is
possible for the market to crash at any time. America is not self-reliant. Many countries
around it can affect the unemployment rate, like the example of outsourcing work to India
and China. Many of the jobs that American industries send out to these different countries
could very well be done within this country. However, employers see that the outside
countries will work for less and decide to hire them. Americans today do not want to stop
working once they are employed. They realize how valuable a job is. When these people
reach the retirement age they decide to keep working. Sometimes, the reason for this is the
persons necessity to keep providing for his or her family. Other times, the employed
person just wants to make more money, so he or she works past the retirement age. This
will affect unemployment because retirement is partially created to recycle jobs. When
people dont retire, others dont get jobs. Another problem arose with long term
unemployed people. Most of this group has resulted to not even looking for jobs any more.
Why? They realize that they are outdated by technology and the speed that corporations
move at. In order to get a well paying job again, a lot of these people would have to go back
to school to freshen up on their technology skills. It may sound like a promising option, yet
these long-term unemployed people do not have the money to go back to college. Statistics
have also shown that the rate of people getting employed because of their college major is

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very low. Another result of this statistic is underemployment. All of these young people
who go to college and receive their degrees, end up working at a job that doesnt even come
close to the credentials they have. The result of this ends up adding to the unemployment
line. People want better jobs. Is there a solution to our unemployment crisis? The
government, up until this day, has not figured out how they will solve this problem. All past
trials have either resulted in worse conditions or nothing changed. As democrats and
republicans continue to fight on which of their ideas will solve problems, America
continues to fall deeper and deeper into its unemployment crisis.

Works Cited:

"Employment Situation Summary." U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. U.S. Bureau of Labor
Statistics, 18 Nov. 2014. Web. 16 Sept. 2014.
<http://www.bls.gov/news.release/empsit.nr0.htm>.

Woodhill, Louis. "The Unemployment Situation Is Getting Worse." Forbes. Forbes

Magazine, 27 July 2011. Web. 16 Sept. 2014.
<http://www.forbes.com/sites/louiswoodhill/2011/07/27/the-unemploymentsituation-is-getting-worse/>.

"Closing the Gap." The Economist. The Economist Newspaper, 15 Feb. 2014. Web. 16
Sept. 2014. <http://www.economist.com/news/finance-and-economics/21596529americas-labour-market-has-suffered-permanent-harm-closing-gap>.

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Unemployment Rate. Digital image. Beureuo of Labor Statistics. Bls.gov, 16 Sept. 2014.
Web. 16 Sept. 2014.
<http://data.bls.gov/generated_files/graphics/LNS14000000_733748_141092071143
1.gif>.

Bernstein, Jared. "So You Wanna Raise the Minimum Wage? Heres What You Need to
Know about the Economics." Washington Post. The Washington Post, 01 Oct. 2014. Web.
16 Oct. 2014. <http://www.washingtonpost.com/posteverything/wp/2014/10/01/soyou-wanna-raise-the-minimum-wage-here-what-you-need-to-know-about-theeconomics/>.

USDL. "The Case for Raising the Minimum Wage." The Case for Raising the Minimum
Wage. N.p., n.d. Web. 17 Oct. 2014.
<http://www.dol.gov/oasam/programs/history/reich/reports/pay.htm>.

Coy, Peter. "The U.S. Long-Term Unemployment Crisis Stumps Economists." Bloomberg
Business Week. Bloomberg, 07 Feb. 2013. Web. 17 Oct. 2014.
<http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2013-02-07/the-u-dot-s-dot-long-termunemployment-crisis-stumps-economists>.

Investopedia. "Underemployment Definition." Investopedia. N.p., n.d. Web. 16 Oct. 2014.

http://www.investopedia.com/terms/u/underemployment.asp