Maura Weir final draft multimodal essay

Maura Weir
Professor Lutz
English 151
October 25, 2011 

                                                       America's Unemployment Rate

What is Unemployment?

• In economics, unemployment refers to the condition and extent of joblessness within an economy, and is measured in terms of the unemployment rate, which is the number of unemployed workers divided by the total civilian labor force. Unemployment means not having a job or being out a work.
• If many Americans are out of work, then they can not give back to the economy, which then could lead to more unemployed people. Unfortunately this cycle can go on and on.

     Throughout Americas history with unemployment, there has been an on going debate with the causes, consequences, and solutions. In our present day the unemployment rate is at 9.1%. This is a high percentage when looking at back at our Nations history of unemployment. Over the past year the unemployment rate has remained high. Here are the state unemployment rates over the past year. According to Don peck from the Atlantic Magazine "The unemployment rate hit 10 percent in October, and there are good reasons to believe that by 2011, 2012, even 2014, it will only decline a little."  Don Peck. Unemployment should not be this high. With so many people out of work, so many families are being hurt. Individual families are not the only ones hurting, but so is our economy.  
     Being an individual who has had a family member who has been affected by unemployment, I have witnessed first hand the negative impact that such an event causes on an entire family.  Individual families are not the only ones hurting, but so is our economy. Our economy is suffering because so many people are out of work, which means fewer people are left to give back to our economy. When people are making money, they spend it, which helps our economy grow. If no one is investing their money into the economy, what does this mean for the future of the economy?


What causes unemployment
     There are many causes to unemployment but here are two of the main reasons.

• Minimum wage is one of the more obvious job deterrents.  If it costs more to hire someone than the job is worth, the job will not exist. However, minimum wage will only cause unemployment in labor markets where the minimum wage is higher than the equilibrium wage. Be- cause the current minimum wage of $7.25 per hour is much lower than the average hourly wage of about $18.80 that was earned by American workers in 2009, any unemployment caused by the $7.25 per hour minimum wage is most likely to fall on low-skilled workers who earn low wages due to their low productivity. These workers are mostly teenagers, adults who did not complete high school, and immigrants with low levels of education and poor English proficiency. For members of such groups, recent research suggests that a 10 percent increase in the minimum wage will cause a 1 to 3 percent decline in employment. (Principles of Microeconomics. McGraw-Hill Create p. 261).
•  U.S. jobs are lost because of globalization of re- source markets. In recent years U.S. firms have found the outsourcing of work abroad to be increasingly profitable. This is called offshoring- shifting work previously done by American workers to workers located in other nations. Where off- shoring occurs, some of the value added in the production process accrues to foreign countries rather than the United States. So part of the income generated from the production of U.S. goods is paid to foreigners, not to American workers. (Principles of Microeconomics. McGraw-Hill Create p. 300). 

Who does unemployment affect the most?

• Although the unemployment rate is high for everyone, it hits different races, genders, and age groups differently. Month after month, the jobs report brings only disappointing news to African-Americans desperately seeking work. The unemployment rate for African Americans is double the unemployment rate of Whites. The unemployment rate for African-Americans is 19.2 percent. Discrimination continues to play a role in  Black unemployment, despite the fact that many people would choose to deny it. According to Rep. Emmanuel Cleaver, there are sociological factors that contribute to this. For example if you compare African-American college graduates with non-African-American college graduates, the African-Americans still have a higher unemployment rate. In America in our time, the color of someones skin should not hinder their chances of employment.
  
  
  
  
• The age group that has the highest unemployment rates are teens. Teen unemployment is three times the national unemployment rate. There are a couple reasons why  unemployment for teens is increasing. Teens are usually more unskilled and inexperienced.  

     As a college student, I, as well as many of my peers go home, or other places in search for a summer job, in the month of July. Therefore, it is not surprising that there has been a huge jump in unemployment every July for the last three years following an increase in the minimum wage, as individuals fight for employment. Ironically, those hit the hardest by minimum wage generated unemployment are the same ones who were supposed to benefit from such artificial increases — minorities and youth. Minimum wage is a serious job killer.  If businesses cant afford to employ a teenager that is unskilled. If you were a manager looking to higher someone you would automatically choose the person with the most experience, which is most likely an older person. With the unemployment rate so high, many older workers are looking for minimum wage jobs, which are usually the jobs teens work. The high minimum wage law is another factor that contributes to teens being out of work. Businesses can not afford to have inexperienced teens working.

• As we are slowly recovering from the recession. Women have been suffering more. The job recovery rate for men is higher then the job recovery rate for women. Men gained more jobs then women did, which makes women's unemployment rate higher.  However, men did loose more jobs during the recession. This means after the recession more men could be hired back to work.

What is President Obama doing to help the Unemployment rates?

• In this video President Obama is explaining the Job Bill that he is currently trying to get to pass. President Obama is trying to pass a Jobs Bill. He has been lobbying for aggressively against Republican opposition since unveiling it a month ago. According to Obama this bill will reduce payroll taxes on workers and employers, extend benefits to long-term unemployed people, spend money on public works projects and help states and local governments keep teachers, police officers and firefighters on the job. He proposed paying for the plan mainly by closing loopholes for oil and gas companies and raising taxes on individuals making more than $200,000 a year and couples making more than $250,000. But with Republicans opposed to much of the new spending in the bill and to tax hikes even on millionaires, the legislation stands no chance of getting through the Republican-controlled House of Representatives in its current form, even if Senate Democrats were able to muster the necessary Republican support to get it through the Senate.

     I believe this plan could help stop the unemployment rate and help the people who help us: the fire fighters, teachers, and police officers.  My question to President Obama is this: If he knows this bill will not pass through the Republican led House of Representatives, why doesn't he come up with a new bill that both the Republicans and Democrats can agree on. The time he is wasting on this bill could have been spent on a new plan to reduce the high unemployment rate.

Will the high unemployment rate affect Obama in the upcoming election?

• Unemployment was high when Barack Obama took office and it’s gotten substantially higher. Does that mean he won’t get re-elected? The unemployment rate when Obama took office was 7.8%. Now it is 9.1%. An article in today’s Times notes, for example, that “no American president since Franklin Delano Roosevelt has won a second term in office when the unemployment rate on Election Day topped 7.2 percent.” The 7.2 percent figure refers to Ronald Reagan, who resoundingly won a second term when the unemployment rate was at that number in November 1984. For Obama to be re-elected he needs to explain the unemployment problem to the American people.  So we will just have to wait for the next election and see what happens for President Obama.

    As you can see from my blog, unemployment is an on going debate that needs to end soon. There are many reasons why unemployment exists. The very high unemployment rate affects many people. Not only does it affect the people who are unemployed, but it also affects their families. We need to get a lower percentage of unemployed people to keep America out of another recession. There needs to be more jobs created to keep the economy growing. 

Works Cited

"America's Effective Unemployment Rate at 18.7%?" The Washington Note. N.p., n.d. Web. 24 Oct. 2011.

"American Unemployment Rate Steady at 9.1% Beating Tepid Expectations." Flap's Blog. N.p., n.d. Web. 

     24 Oct. 2011. 

"Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) reports actually 16.2% of US population now unemployed." 

     Venturocket Blog . N.p., n.d. Web. 24 Oct. 2011.

Principles of Microeconomics. N.p.: n.p., n.d. VitalSource Bookself. Web. 15 Nov. 2011.


"Six years into a lost decade." Economist 399.8745 (2011): 28.Academic Search Complete. EBSCO. Web. 24 Oct. 2011.

"The return of structural unemployment concerns." The Economist. N.p., n.d. Web. 24 Oct. 2011.

"U.S. Nonfarm Payrolls Rise in September, Unemployment Rate Steady." Trading Economics. N.p., n.d.

     Web. 24 Oct. 2011.

Warsh, Kevin, and Jed Bush. "A New Strategy for Economic Growth."Wall Street Journal - Eastern Edition 10 Aug. 2011: A15. Academic Search Complete. EBSCO. Web. 24 Oct. 2011.

"'We Can’t Wait” for Democrats to Work with Republicans on Jobs." Speaker Blog. John 

     Boehner, n.d. Web. 24 Oct. 2011.