Unemployment Uk

Essay by PaperNerd ContributorUniversity, Bachelor's October 2001

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UnemploymentUnemployment has existed ever since the creation of an economic system, and as a result, policies have been implemented to try to resolve high unemployment levels in the U.K. In this essay I will be describing the arguments around unemployment and evaluating the evidence for and against it. The approach will be predominantly on the structure of unemployment, the policies to reduce unemployment and the various reasons that unemployment comes about will also be considered.

Unemployment can be defined as 'The number of people who are actively looking for work but are currently without a job' Unemployment has been a consistent economic problem and is a predicament that every economy wrestles with to overcome. The unemployment level determines the economic position of a country in relation to the world.

Unemployment takes different forms, which is notably argued by Parkin, Powell and Matthews as taking three forms, the first being frictional unemployment.

The frictionally unemployed are people who have just entered the workforce or who have been laid off work and are looking for work. Structural unemployment is another category, which describes how jobs are lost through increasing technological advances, which cut down the need for extra workers as well as the loss of jobs through international competition. Unemployment, which fluctuates with the business cycle, where periods of high inflation see a high unemployment rate, is known as cyclical unemployment.

The division of unemployment into class ethnicity, region, gender and age can explain the trends of unemployment.

Theodore Caplowan American Sociologist recognizes issues which abate women in the labour market. He outlines that women's careers come to a stand still when they take up the traditional roles of housewives and mothers. Adopting the mother or housewife role, consequently leads to them becoming less attractive to an employer, as employers recognises...