The Great Recession and The Unemployment Rate - Free Essay Example

Work is important to most of our lives , that enables us to get by in the world, but also itrs the key to now we define ourselves and to our sense of self-worth. At the end of the Great Recession, the unemployment rate peaked at 10.0 percent (in October 2009) which has significantly increased before the Recession. Youth unemployment has became a long term problem in the U.S. An increase of youth joblessness slows down the speed of U.S economic recovery, although the Great Recession affected national economic around the world, which has already has been 9-10 years. So we have to think about is it the government not doing well in unemployment problem which has affected to economic globally or is it individualrs problem. There were several factors that caused the Great Recession, the housing market was a large part, Several factors conspired to cause the problem. A push for the maximum number of people to own a house has been policy objective off the government. There were many companies and banks willing to give home loans that were not concern about whether or not the loan applicant had the ability to ever pay back the loan. Also, at that time which was during the Great Recession, housing prices skyrocketed, banks approved loans with lower credit scores, incomes and savings. Incomes simply were not enough to afford a high cost of housing. Hence, people saved less money and were less prepared for unemployment and costly life events along with financial party going as home prices continue to skyrocket. As for individual, people were selfish in a way, by trying to live beyond their means- using credits/loans/mortgages, and sometimes, violating regulations in the process along with a significantly in crease in prices at everything. Since, everything from housing prices to necessary things in life such as oil/ gas prices rise, people spend more money and more money, more than what they used to spend, they are without any consciousness reducing the money available for them to be spent on actual reproductive day. The Great Recession has provoked many business to slow down since 2008; as a result many people have lost their jobs and became unemployed. Because of that, the unemployment has been a particular concern within both government and private sectors for many years. On the authority of The U.S Bureau Of Labor Statistic, the employment rate of young adults has decreased as it did in all other groups, during the recession. According to The Recession 2007-2009, the percentage of young men employment has declined about 88 % in the fall of 2007 along with young women unemployment peaked at 79% in the late of 2007; they both remained fairly stable through December 2008 which was when the Great Recession happened. The Great Recession was the most severe economic downturn and the longest persisting recession since the Great Depression. Employment fell by 6.3 % which is more than twice the decline in the 1981 recession, three times decline in 2001 recession and four times decline in the 1990 re cession. Unemployment averaged about 4.6 % in the year leading up the Recession then spiked up to more than 10 % in October 2009, this points out the decline on youth employment rate that was resulted from the Great Recession since there were more than 15 million people that were unemployed, according to Great Recession, great recovery? Trends from the current Population Survey by Bureau Labor Statistic .Unemployment rate increases because businesses sack staff/labor because they cannot afford to pay them, people are not buying what is being produced and sold, so company faces serious loss which caused the recession and increase rate of unemployment . Since, unemployment rate increased during the Great Recession, as a result unemployment is like a backbone structure in an economy. Unemployment directly affects a countryrs economic. If a country has high unemployment rate then there would be no production and without production the economy wouldnt be able to survive. Therefore, une mployment has negatively impacted among peoples lives, but on what spectrum? Firstly, the consequences of unemployment of the individual is emotionally, socially destructive and it could also impact on their future. According to Unemployment and Health: Experiences Narrated by Young Finnish Men, an article that examines psychological effects of youth unemployment, ? The young men described how they often had feelings of shame and guilt over, as they put it, not doing my bit, that is, not being involved and contributing to the public welfare but rather being more of a burden on society, as stated by the study, young men often feel guilty since they have been out of work for so long and have not been a part to contribute to society ?. Their feelings spilt into three categories which is Standing on the sidelines, Not being anybody, and Feeling worry, those are the phases that they would likely to experience when they are unemployed. Unemployment is concentrated in some areas of the city/country; this could basically depress the whole area and creating a vicious cycle and becomes unemployed could cause psychological stress. When they are unemployed, individual has low self-confidence which causes stress. Moreover, an individual being unemployed will restrict his/her spending on both, needs (food, clothes, other living expenses, etc ) and wants significantly since they are out of work. This can lead to significant difficulties rapidly. An extreme situation would be having no food to eat, no roof to live under along with serious mental and physical illness. Being unemployed can put a lot of pressure on an individual if he/ she is the sold provider for his/her family. There also another consequences that is contributed by unemployment that is discouragement in finding jobs. In conformity with Economic Synopses, the article Accounting for Discouraged Workers in the Unemployment Rates stated ? Discouraged workers, for instance, represent less than 9 % of the unemployed workers and less than six-tenths of 1 % of the labor force. This points out that one of the outcomes from the Great Recession is that workers have been unemployed for a very long time. If they have been out of work even longer and their job skills may no longer match the requirements for new jobs being offered. Also ,as stated by Unemployment and Health: Experiences Narrated by Young Finnish Men, ? The young men reported how their lives were becoming more and more unstructured and, as a consequence, days and nights were blurred together. They had no time schedule to keep. This often resulted in the young men more or less turning the days and nights around because they felt there was no reason to get up in the morning when no one was expecting them. Because unemployed have no purpose to get up everyday because theres no point of doing that unless they have jobs to do, they feel discouraged on finding new jobs and new opportunities for them to be a part of society and become unemployed or discouraged unemployed people. There are always long-term consequences from a problem. One of them are social impact from unemployment. Importantly, poverty is one of the consequence that comes from unemployment. Particularly in rural areas lower castes and marginal social groups are generally poor In consideration, unemployed people have been out of work for a long period of time, they would consider to engage criminal actions such as becoming a thief or a robber or asking for dowry because they dont really have any other options. This would tarnish their image in the society as well besides bringing risk to your life. Also, the phrase ?an idle mind is a devils mind means dont be idle or the devil will tempt you into doing something bad. In this situation, it describes when you are unemployed, all sorts of things can come in your mind which includes the possibility of committing suicide. In the study The Social Impact Of Unemployment by Bijou Yang and David Lester, they stated ? An association between unemployed and suicide has two possible microlevel explanations. First, since most suicide are mentally ill, potential suicides may have poor job performance, which may lead to job loss or alternatively, people maybe unable to work because impairment (Dilling and Weyerer, 1980) . Second, unemployment may be a cause suicide. The stress of job loss maybe so unbearable that it triggers suicidal behavior. .