Causes of Unemployment and High-Risk Groups

UNEMPLOYMENT

Unemployment is one of the mayor problems in the EC at the moment, more than 18 million people are unemployed in the member states at the moment. And it seems that the unemployment rates won’t stop raising in the next few years.

So, because of that it is a top theme of all political parties and of the EC government. All those parties try to find new and bet- ter solutions for reducing the number of unemployed people. But they try this in different ways. The Labor Party (SPÖ) for example tries to establish more job sharing and time shortening in firms. The Freiheitliche Partei wants to reduce the costs of working force.

There are some high-risk groups, for example youth, women with little children after their period of restriction or elder peo- ple aged 50 and over. Lots of those people can’t find a (good) job.

Young people are part of the high-risk group because in most cases they do not have any practical experience and there are lots of young people searching for the same few jobs. That is why there is a high selection rate on the job market. Firms want to employ young people with lots of experience who want to work almost 24 hours a day and earn just a little pocket money.

Women in general, but especially women with little children who want to work again after their period of restriction are another high-risk group.

Their problem is that the probability that they have to have a nursing holiday for their ill children is very high, especially if they have little kids. Another problem is that those women haven’t worked for the time of their period of restriction and there might be new trends, new developments or whatever.

The last high-risk group is the large group of over 50 years old people. Their problem is that they cost too much. If a firm em- ploys younger workers they don’t have to pay that much as if there would work an elder person. That is why they are fired. And it is almost impossible for those people to find a new work- ing place.

The Austrian government has already some employment pro- jects in process. So, for example do young people who left school and didn’t find a workplace have to attend school. But my opinion on that project is that it is only done for reducing the number at unemployment statistics. The problem isn’t solved by doing that. It just seems as if the situation would be better than it is.

There are lots of different causes of unemployment:

One cause is the recession in the EC as in most parts of the world. If the economic situation isn’t that good it has a number of effects on the labor market. Firms have to reduce costs and so they often fire the elder or less skilled workers.

Another type of unemployment is the so-called structural unemployment, which is a result of the changing economic structures and the structures of a firm.

Also a cause is the development of new technologies. Because of computers and electronics firms need fewer people for working.

Seasonal unemployment is a problem for workers in the build- ing industry or in the tourism sector, because they often don’t know if they will get the same job again. If economy is not that good, firms won’t expand that much and that means that there are less workers in the building industry are needed. Same in the tourism sector, where the workers never know if there is enough work for them.

But there are also so-called hidden unemployed people, for ex- ample housewives or students. Those people do not have a paid job but they are never mentioned in any unemployment statistics.

The effects of a high unemployment rate is that many families do not have enough money to afford their basics of life. So be- cause of that government has to help financially, but this causes high costs for working people who have to support the unemployed.

If there is a recession people have less money, which means that they can’t afford that much. That causes problems for many firms who have to fire more and more people, some companies have to be closed down and economy is getting weaker and weaker.

Unemployed people are dissatisfied and depressed and that might lead to demonstrations or in some cases to alcoholism and crime.

It is very hard to find good solutions on the long run. Some ideas such as job-sharing or early retirement are in discussion. But my opinion on that is that both, job-sharing and early re- tirement aren’t the right way. Because if you share your job you won’t earn enough money to afford the basics of life for your family.

Early retirement sounds nice but it means a huge amount of costs for all the other working people who have to pay for that. So this can’t be the right way, I suppose.

A good solution would be the attendance of further training courses, so that unemployed people are trained to find a new job and learn new skills. Only problem about that are the costs, which are very high and the question is who is going to pay all those courses?