Introduction
Human beings have various needs that are essential for their survival on earth. These needs are categorized as basic (food, clothing, shelter, education and proper health care) hence one can not survive without them. Even though others are more urgent and important than others, it requires proper planning to ensure that they are all considered and catered for. In order to have these essential needs, a person has to have money to access or buy them. Money is earned through payments from employment. This essay aims at pin pointing the main reasons why there is an increasing rate of unemployment in many countries in the world.
Main Body
Employment refers to any activity that is aimed at generating income to an individual in terms of profit or salary. Profits are realized when a person invests capital on any business activity while salary is obtained after offering services to an individual, company or organization (Powers 104). Unemployment is a situation that involves lack of participation in an activity that generates income for the individual. This has been fuelled by the following major reasons that are man made while others are natural;
Human population growth rate has sky rocketed in the last few years to supersede the world’s ability to create employment opportunities to the available population (Cottle 36). The world’s population is said to be increasing at a compounded rate of about eighty million people every year. This statistic means that after about eighteen years time there should be an addition of at least fifty million employment opportunities for these people when they are grown ups. In addition, this population is projected to be about ten billion by the year 2050. These statistics mean that there should be about four billion newly created employment opportunities by 2050. However, this is usually not the case as the rate of employment opportunities being created are very few compared to the demands of the population and this means that many people will be unemployed regardless of their qualifications.
Technology and innovations have also contributed to the high rates of unemployment when people are being forced to leave their work positions as machines take over. In the last four decades a single office would have an office secretary, personal assistant, office messenger and an office clerk (Stringham 121). However, with the increase in the use of computers in the office one person is able to do all these chores courtesy of the internet. People with the ability to use computers to perform various tasks are usually considered better candidates in interviews compared to people with limited ability. In some occasions, human beings have been completely replaced by machines like in the dairy sector where milking of dairy cow is now being widely done by milking machines. The use of robots in many industrial and warehousing processes has contributed greatly to the displacement of human labor in the production processes. Furthermore, the use of robot controllers and integrators that combine human and machine efforts is a recent development that will have great impact on employment opportunities in the world.
The most inevitable factor that has contributed to high unemployment rate in all parts of the world is the depletion of natural resources that offer employment opportunities to the community. Many countries that have natural resources like mineral ores and carbon fuels usually offer immense employment opportunities to the local and beneficiary population. However most of these resources are not renewable others like timber take too long to be replaced and regain their useful state. Sometimes human activities lead to the depletion of these natural resources (Brophy 92). Whenever these resources are depleted the people who were directly and indirectly depending on them for employment become jobless.
The high inflation rate has made it very difficult for many companies to sustain their production processes and at the same time keep their staff at work. Many businesses have closed down as the costs incurred are much higher than the profits realized. This means that the final result is nothing short of losses and wastage of resources (Brophy 135). On the other hand people have taken loans from banks in order to counter the effects of inflation but this proves futile as the high interest rates on loans deprive them the profits realized. Banks also have not been left out as they are forced to increase their lending rates to the clients in order to sustain their operations. This in turn discourages people from borrowing money from these financial institutions forcing them to close down and more workers are laid off leading to unemployment.
Furthermore, the education system being used in many countries is based on theoretical concepts. It has ignored the practical aspects of skills and knowledge and therefore converting these theories to real use in the job market becomes a tall order. Many students graduate with very remarkable grades, but use most of their time looking for suitable employment (Brophy 112). Some have been blinded by the fact that they are educated and have become too selective in their choice of work. They ignore simple and manual labor on grounds that they are educated and need ‘respectable’ work. This creates temporary unemployment as thousands of graduates become jobless while they wait for their star to shine.
Lastly, the world is currently being faced with numerous terrorists’ attacks that have threatened the existence of human life. For instance the terrorist bombings in the World Trade Center in America (September 11th, 2001) threatened international investments in cosmopolitan countries and cities. This is because the costs incurred in the restoration of the businesses and injuries incurred are very expensive (Powers 84). It is estimated that America suffered a loss of about $ 95 billion in terms of losses to the city of New York in jobs, salaries, taxes, damage to infrastructure and costs of cleaning the city. In addition, the insurance industry suffered a loss of about $ 40 billion while the global market suffered an incalculable amount. Such terrorist activities deter investments that in turn limit the potential of creating employment opportunities and so many qualified people are left jobless while investors fear the safety of their businesses.
However, the high rate of unemployment can be controlled by careful family planning to regulate the high population growth rate. In addition, the government should enact laws that govern the use of natural resources to avoid wastage and misuse. Learning institutions should adopt education systems that produce manpower that suits the job market. Security should be given high consideration in national budgets to provide secure investment opportunities in all countries to foreigners and the locals.
Conclusion
Unemployment has resulted to the rise of many social, economic and political evils and every one should play their roles in ensuring there are available opportunities for qualified candidates. Unemployment lowers the Gross Domestic Product due to high dependency on the working population hence limiting national growth, but with careful long and short term planning many states will successfully fight unemployment.
Works Cited
Brophy, Tom. Little Victories: Conquering Unemployment. New York: CreateSpace, 2010. Print.
Cottle, Thomas J. Hardest Times: The Trauma of Long-Term Unemployment. Massachusetts: University of Massachusetts, 2003. Print
Powers, Sarah. Unemployment Doesn’t Have to Suck. New York: Sarah Powers, 2012. Print.
Stringham, Jim. The Unemployment Survival Guide. Boston: Gibbs Smith Publisher, 2004. Print.