Social Costs of Unemployment in the USA and Canada - Essay Example

The long-term unemployed people in these countries become discouraged and exit the labor force market prematurely instead of continuing to search for the jobs that have evaded them for a long while (Junankar, 2009). This is mainly likely for the older generation who are unemployed because they take quite a long to get jobs.

Most persons in these countries who have been unemployed suffer certain erosion in their acquired job skills since they haven’t been applying for them. This is apparently a much bigger social problem for individuals who have been out of employment for a long time. The erosion is even worse for individuals with skills in specific fields which change more rapidly (Junankar, 2009). Much unemployment also involves a waste of time as well as the country’s productivity.

The most noticeable difference in social costs of unemployment in the USA and Canada is in health care. Canada's healthcare performance is of higher quality on most factors than in the USA. Additionally, healthcare attention is universal for all Canadians. In the United States, the complaint is that most people are uninsured and; therefore, do not have access to most basic healthcare amenities to which Canadians are entitled. This creates a burden on the emergency chamber services in the States which in turn increases healthcare costs significantly (Junankar, 2009). Read More