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Daniel Cornejo
Debra Mercado
English 113B
1 May 2016
Unemployment and Poverty: A Major Crisis in the City of Los Angeles
The social issue of unemployment in the city of Los Angeles is one the major crisis that
negatively affects its people and community, forcing them to live in poverty due to the lack of
job opportunities, the impact of the economy on local businesses, and finally being laid-off or
fired from a job simply for economic benefits because their jobs can no longer pay them.
Inevitably leaving thousands of Angelinos out of work, causing them to take matters into their
own hands in order to provide for their families to overcome their situation of poverty and
unemployment. Although unemployment is a major crisis in the city of Los Angeles, the solution
to end the crisis of unemployment in LA is for the city to create more jobs for the unemployed
workers so that Los Angeles unemployment rate could reduce dramatically over the next few
years.
Unemployment as defined by the Economy Watch website is defend as, the state of not
having a job or any source of financial income to support oneself or family in order to obtain and
purchase the basic necessities in life (Economy Watch). As a result of unemployment, it leads to
poverty because people are laid-off from their jobs which causes them to no longer to be able to
find a source of financial income due to the lack of job opportunities that are available. The
history of unemployment started during the Great Depression in the year 1929. According to a

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source entitled The Great Depression Begins: The Stock Market Crash of 1929 published by
the History Channels main website, it stated, The Great Depression greatly affected the United
States economy as a whole. The Great Depression caused an increase in the rate of
unemployment in the United States, caused millions of workers to be laid-off and fired from their
jobs for economic reason, simply because their jobs could no longer pay them (History
Channel). It is because of The Great Depression that unemployment spread across the United
States and made unemployment and poverty a major social issue in our world and society today.
I believe that in order to reduce the cities unemployment rate, the city of Los Angeles should
provide and create more job opportunities and work trading programs for the unemployed
workers.
Currently, the city of Los Angeles is experiencing one of the highest unemployment rates
in the US. Los Angeles unemployment rate is now up to 8.1 percent leaving thousands of
unemployed workers out of jobs who are forced to live in poverty. The lack of job opportunities,
job skills, and the high rate of unemployment in the city of Los Angles contributes to the
unemployment rate and poverty of its people. According to the article published by the Xinhua
News Agency on January 20th, 2007 entitled, Unemployment Rises in Los Angeles it states
that, Los Angeles Unemployment rate is vastly increasing due to the lack of jobs that are
available in the city (CEIS). This quote suggests that the rate of unemployment is increasing in
the city due to the lack of job opportunity and job skills of the unemployed workers. Since these
unemployed workers dont have much education or job experience with working, most
employers do not hire unskilled workers to work for them. This ultimately causes the cities
unemployment rate to rapidly increase leaving thousands of Angelino workers out of jobs and
forcing them to live in poverty.

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Another main important reason for why unemployment and poverty exist in the city of
Los Angeles is the fact that the economy of Los Angeles has been hit the hard which has caused
many employers and businesses to lay off workers who cannot find work because of their lack of
other skills. According to the article entitled, Unemployment Hits Record Low California, Los
Angeles County: Payrolls Grow Valley Edition of the Daily News that was posted on the
ProQuest Database, it stated that, unemployment sank for a record low across the state of
California and the Los Angeles County in the year of October 2006 (Staff). The unemployment
rate of the city has increased from 4.5 percent to 4.8 percent in the matter of only a month from
October to September of 2006 as Los Angeles economy and high rate of unemployment started
to affect its city and people (Staff). This impact of unemployment cause an increase cause in
the joblessness rate of the city because it caused many business to lay off their workers ,due to
the fact, that these unemployed workers lack job skills and also because they can no longer pay
them for their work. According to the article, The number of Californians looking for work in
October fell to 794,000, a decrease of 64,000 from September, about 239,300 of the job
seekers had been laid off by the city of Los Angeles (Staff). This quote suggest that Los
Angeles economy was greatly affected in the year 2006 that its businesses had to lay off most
of their workers simply due to the fact the economy was suffering and also because there jobs
could no longer pay their workers for the all work that they have done. If the city of Los Angeles
crated more job opportunities and work training programs for the unemployed. If the city of Los
Angeles does decide to do this, it would cause the solution and end of the reason of why many
businesses, companies and, employers decide to lay off their workers.
Finally the last reason for why unemployment is that workers are laid off from their jobs
simply because their jobs can no longer pay them. According to the source Still Looking 3 Who

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Were Laid-off for Purely Economic Reasons Facing Uncertain Futures. It suggests that,
workers are being laid off from their work simply due to economic reasons and benefits because
their work can no longer pay them (Venant). These unemployed workers are starting to become
frustrated with being unemployed for so long that they started to take matter into their own hand
by becoming street vendors in order to seek a new source of financial income.
Street vending is illegal in the city of Los Angeles but this is not stopping these
unemployed workers because they demand a source of financial income in order to support
themselves and their families, because they are willing to do anything for any source of financial
income. According to the article entitled More Angelinos Are Becoming Street Vendors amid
Weak Economy it states that the unemployed workers of LA are tired of being out of work that
they started to take matters into their own hand and started to become local street vendors, which
is illegal in the city of Los Angeles. Police officers can give these street vendors a citation if they
dont have the permission of the city to be where they are at. These street vendors are tired of
being unemployed that they would risk going to jail in order to earn a stable source of income to
help support their families with. There is an important quote in the article that states, we the
unemployed need to pay our bills, so were trying to make more extra and if we think about it,
we make more money here by selling hotdogs then at clothing stores (Hsun). This quote proves
that the unemployed workers of Los Angeles are taking matters in their own hands in order to
have and provide a financial income and better living conditions for themselves and their
families.
However on the other hand, these unemployed street vendors do not want to be street
vendors forever. The last line in the article ends with this shocking quote which states, Street
vending doesnt bring home the bacon like I want it to, Im just waiting for something else to bite

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(Hsun). This last quote of the article suggests that the unemployed workers do not want to be
street vendors for the rest of their lives because these unemployed workers still dream of
accomplishing their dreams of having a good well-paying job in order for them to overcome their
situation of poverty in life.
Although, there are some people in LA that dont care about the social issue of
unemployment that exist within the city. These people are the rich and wealthy people of Los
Angeles. They dont care for the unemployed workers because they are filthy rich and never
have worked a single day in their lives. They believe that the unemployed workers are running
the history and society of the city of Los Angeles and are only damaging the city because they
ruining the peace of the city by protesting against the city and fighting against the city
government in order to demand for new job opportunities to be created for them. These people
believe that it is in fact actually the fault of the unemployed that they are forced to live in poverty
because they decided to make the wrong choices in life that got them where they are today.
These bad choices that the unemployed workers make in their lives are the reason for why they
are unemployed and forced to live in poverty. Although it is in fact true that it is the fault of these
people are unemployed and forced to live in poverty, I believe that those are just excuses made
by the rich people so they dont have to create more jobs for the unemployed workers of Los
Angeles. These unemployed workers need to be provided with job opportunities so that they can
help support and provide for their families. If more jobs were created the cities unemployment
rate would greatly decrease and would create an economic turnaround for Los Angeless
economy that would benefit it greatly.
After doing my research, unemployment and poverty is a serious issue that that affects its
people and the city of Los Angeles. A call of action should be made by the city of Los Angeles to

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created and made by the city in order to reduce its cities unemployment rate. Some solutions that
could be made to create more jobs in the city of Los Angeles is to create more jobs for the
unemployed and as well as to provide the unemployed workers with job training programs and
better education so that they can get good well-paying jobs to provide them with the financial
income that they need to support themselves and their families. I believe if the city of LA does
follow the suggestions I provided in this essay, the cities unemployment and jobless rate would
greatly reduce over the next few years.

Work Cited Page


History.com Staff. "The Great Depression." History.com. A&E Television Networks, 01 Jan.
2009. Web. 30 Apr. 2016.

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Hsun, Tiffany. "More Angelenos Are Becoming Street Vendors amid Weak Economy." Los
Angeles Times. Los Angeles Times, 6 Sept. 2010. Web. 10 Apr. 2016.
Staff and, W. S. (2006, Nov 18). UNEMPLOYMENT HITS RECORD LOW CALIFORNIA,
LOS ANGELES COUNTY PAYROLLS GROW. Daily News Retrieved from
http://libproxy.csun.edu/login?url=http://search.proquest.com/docview/282610412?
accountid=7285
"Unemployment and Poverty." Unemployment and Poverty. Ed. Economy Watch. Economy
Watch, 13 Oct. 2010. Web. 10 Apr. 2016.
Unemployment rises in los angeles. (2007, Jan 20). Xinhua News Agency - CEIS Retrieved from
http://libproxy.csun.edu/login?url=http://search.proquest.com/docview/452381485?
accountid=7285
VENANT, E. (1991, Jan 24). Still looking 3 who were laid off for purely economic reasons
facing uncertain futures. Los Angeles Times (Pre-1997 Fulltext) Retrieved from
http://libproxy.csun.edu/login?url=http://search.proquest.com/docview/281255279?
accountid=7285

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