Unemployment and Family Resource Management
Unemployment rates and key statistic in the US
While the definition of the term unemployment has always elicited heated debates as scholars fail to come to a conclusive standard definition, it has often been extended to reflect those people with poorly paying jobs that fail to meet their major basic requirements. According to the United States Bureau Labor Statistics (2010a), the current unemployment rates have been shifting upwards since the last quarter of the year 2007culminating to a cumulative job loss of about 6.7 million by the end of 2009. The Department of Labor further indicates that by December 2009, joblessness increased in all 50 states to an average of 10. The western states however recorded higher levels of unemployment rates which reached a high of 10.7 while those in the North recorded much lower rates of about 9.7 (US Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2010b).
It is worth noting that over the years, Latinos and Blacks families have suffered more unemployment compared to the whites (see figure 3). The recent 13.4 unemployment levels for the blacks and 7.3 for whites appeared to rekindle the long time discriminatory outlook in the United States during and after the cold war (Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2010a).
Notably, the unemployment rates have been rising since the year 2007 and reaching a peak in December 2009. As Andrew, Andreas and Steffen (2010) indicate, the greatest concern is that unemployment rates have been projected to continue rising in the year 2010. Though the levels of the United States unemployment are cited to be much lower compared to other states, implications are very intensive to the Nation.
Causes and family implications of the current unemployment in the nation
From their analysis of the current unemployment status in the nation, Andrew et al (2010) indicate that the recent economic downturn is the main causative factor. As industries and businesses sought to shield themselves from the realities of the recession, they embarked on cutting down costs in their systems. As a result, massive layoffs were recorded as other industries were threatened with closure by the shrinking market for their products and services.
Following the high unemployment rates in the nation, Andrew and Andreas (Andrew, Andreas and Steffen, 2010) point out that most families are forced to forego key luxuries they used to enjoy previously. To emphasize on the emergent implications, Andrew et al (2010) give an example of a family in Texas where all the members were laid off from their jobs and only left with a small family business to support them. It is only the most essential family demands that are considered while others are left out in anticipation of the economy to improve.
James and Michael (2008) explain that the problem of unemployment, especially those that comes unexpectedly like economic recessions, have greater implications to families that lack external sources of income. For many families living in the lower social classes such as the inner cities, they have been forced to fore go some of the life basics such as good shelter and decent meals.
To balance the highly limited resources available for family use in education, most families are shifting their children form private to public schools which are considered to be much cheaper. However, this is done despite the poorer performance of public schools in the nation. Notably, while more families equally fail to take their children for higher education, the concern is shifting to the long-term negative implications. At a time that the nation crime rates had assimilated a downward trend, the reverse might be experienced in the near future (Andrew et al, 2010).
Notably, healthcare is considered as one of the most critical aspects to the United States families. However, Carlo and Matteo (2010) indicate that over 85 million families are not insured mainly due to unemployment. Similar to major luxuries, many families are therefore considering healthcare to be secondary. As a result, major diseases and psychological disorders which could have been easy to treat are going not just untreated, but unreported in some cases.
Mechanisms and efforts to address the problem
While unemployment has indeed been the main cause of family resources management problems, key measures to address it have equally been established. Following the increasing negative implications of the global recession, the current Obama administration passed an economic stimulus package of US 787 billion which was aimed at anchoring economic recovery of the United States (Carlo and Matteo, 2010). Other mechanisms established to address the problem include use of unemployment benefits to unemployed, use of thrift saving plan for people who previously worked in the government and use of healthcare insurance scheme to holistically cover more people in the country. Besides, the government also cooperates with private sector in providing employment to the people.
Conclusion
It is from the above discussion that this paper supports the thesis statement, unemployment forms one of the most distressing family resource management issues due to its extended implications that affects all aspects of their lives such as healthcare, social security and education among others. It came out from the discussion that unemployment rates have been on the rise since the onset of the 2008 economic recession. With this recession being the main cause of the present high rates of unemployment, the implications spans to all sectors of the family such as education, entertainment, healthcare and even shelter. It is critical that greater cooperation is established between the government and private sector to address the current problem which has been projected to overflow to other issues such as crime.
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