Wednesday, June 04, 2014

Unemployment in America

Jobs have become difficult to come by in the past years. Many people are losing jobs, there are people who are unable to find a job, and as for someone like me putting in applications I hear things such as: " You need experience to be employed at this job" or " 5 years experience needed." Honestly how can you gain this experience when you cannot get into the job in the first place! That is one thing that infuriates me in the job market these days. There are middle aged people who were let go from their previous jobs because of a price cut so now they will work anything to make ends meet. It's a cruel world and it is very harsh to say the least but there is some who are trying to mend the wound.

     

Employers Add 192,000 Jobs in March, Unemployment Rate Unchanged

Job growth slightly lower than hoped for as winter finally subsides.



There are new jobs that were created to help those in need of an occupation. Thus new jobs are made for nurses, loggers and miners, part-time retail, etc. There was a hope that this will help decrease the amount of the unemployment but there was little to no change. Yes it did give some people jobs but some were part time or they were only seasonal. There are companies out there that are trying to help create more spots to bring in more employees but with the economy going the route that it is, there is no telling what could happen to the unemployment rate. As for criticism on this article Henry Hazlitt talks about people looking to the future and missing the unseen. I think years back people thought they were safe at the job they were at and didn't make plans for the future. As a result we have problems such as this where people are struggling to find jobs and companies are trying to make more room for people to work. 
              There is the thought also that Hazlitt brought up was that people would be unemployed because they are primitive to "The Curse of Machinery". Unemployment was brought on because it could be that machines do take part and then there are budget cuts, the company cannot afford to pay for the services of the person. Some compare now to the Great Depression in 1932. This article claims that they want to "fix" the rate of unemployment and so they hire new people but what if they cannot afford the new people they bring in? Hazlitt explains labor-saving devices that help companies save their money, and maybe letting 5 out of 10 people go is the way to do it. If these people don't work, how will they be able to be taxed? This is a new problem that occurs in a web of problems the US faces with unemployment. This is why new job opportunities are created. This article leads into other articles such as home owners, growth in the economy today slowing, etc. This article is troubling because it claims it gives that many people jobs, but then there isn't a change in the unemployment rate. There are some people who are picky about the job they want to preform, this is something that economists like to point out. Hazlitt brings another point up that finds flaws in this article: The consumer makes or breaks a deal with the company. If there are people making coats for 30 an hour and they sell the coats for 50, but if there isn't anyone to buy the coat that will make no difference in the production and the employment of the person. In other words, if there is no one to buy the product made then how will the employee get paid. The major flaw in this article is there are jobs made for people but that may not affect the amount of consumers that are coming in, so what good is to hire someone and give them a job when there is no income coming in? 
       On a final note,  this has been a problem for the economy for awhile and this will continue to be a problem until there is a major break through somewhere. Hazlitt does make a statement on Pg. 41 that machinery could make more jobs for people, the production, the guy who fixes the machine when it goes down, the woman who feeds the guy on his lunch break, a web of different possibilities of jobs that can come forth. There hasn't been a big chain like that to give thousands of people their jobs back or the one's that they could perform; sooner or later there will be something that sparks and brings out those jobs and this article claimed that there was an effort in doing so, it just wasn't successful. Unemployment is a problem and hopefully soon it is a problem we can fix. 

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