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  • Essay / The Reality of Unemployment - 1977

    Unemployment is much more vital to the economy and plays a huge role in keeping our economic system rotating throughout the United States. The percentage of unemployed in the labor force as a whole distinguishes what constitutes national unemployment. Unemployment mainly comes to public attention when the economy is in trouble and is the subject of much debate among economists who attempt to challenge their apprehensions. The disconcerting problems are those of the unemployed losing the wages that support their families, causing the nation as a whole to lose its contribution to the economy. When the unemployed lose their purchasing power, businesses can lay off workers, causing a cascading disaster effect on the economy. The loss of contribution from the economy limits the goods and services that could have been produced and purchased, thereby disrupting the circular flow of the economy. These concerns play a major role in why understanding the extent of unemployment is so vital to the United States. To better understand the impact of unemployment on our economy, it is imperative to start with the basics. You need to understand how unemployment statistics are compiled, what the composition of the labor force is, and the different measures used to calculate unemployment. These factors break down the complexity of unemployment to better understand the influences of unemployment on our economy. The distribution of unemployment begins with recognizing the statistics of those who are unemployed. The unemployment rate is misinterpreted as the number of people filing for unemployment benefits, but it is not an accurate account of the range of unemployment. This misconception does not take into account labor underutilization. U3 appears to have been a middle ground, but since the economic crisis the entire United States has suffered economically; the strict and restrictive definition of U3 can lead to a devaluation of the real unemployment situation. As the economy begins to grow and rebuild, the U.S. government should attempt to reestablish a more accurate method of measuring the overall labor market. For now, it would be in the interest of economists to try to find the median between U3 and U6. This would avoid any distortion of the actual data. With so many variables that make up unemployment systems, there will be no clear answer on what unemployment rates actually are. Each perspective and each measurement results in a slightly different answer, if all the factors in each region are taken into account..