Effects of Unemployment and underemployment on social units - Research Paper Example

? Effects of Unemployment and underemployment on social units Effects of Unemployment and underemployment on social units In the current economic trend in U.S., underemployment and unemployment rates have raised, which has affected the economic progress. Lack of job opportunities forces individuals to work in whatever chance they get inconsiderate of over qualifications or underpayments and even the working environment. Lack of jobs increases the dependency rate, reducing per capita incomes and forces people to live at poverty levels since they lack the income to cater for their basic needs (Kayafas, 2008). This issue will discuss the effects of unemployment and underemployment and its effects on the American family structures. It will discuss the effects of poor financial resources among Americans, challenges in maintaining family needs and in utilization of human capital effectively in businesses for profit maximization. Americans have experienced increasing rates of unemployment over the last four to five years. Due to the high rates of unemployment in the U.S., many parents have been unable to support their families and hence resolving for immoral ways of income generation. Prostitution and robberies become a way of earning finances to support the family needs. Due to such activities in the society, this has affected the mutual relations in families (Ferris & Stein, 2012). There have been many family break-ups resulting to raising children in single parent families. Single-parented children tend to feel unloved and unequal to others in the society since they do not get attention and love from both parents. Families where the couples have separated the society neglects them and even others are termed as misfits. In some cases, the parent also withdraws from their children, denying them parental love. The children are also discriminated by others leaving them depressed and without self-esteem. Such emotions affect interactions of children with each other and a decline in their academic performances (Magdoff, 2011). Underemployment and unemployment do not only affect the underemployed or unemployed, but the coworkers at times suffer from anxiety and heavy workload. This has been the case in the United States and as a result, many families loose attachments with their breadwinners. The families lack the solidarity, and this detaches each member of the family away destroying the mutual relations that existed before and may even result to unhealthy relations (Kayafas, 2008). Children, whose parents work excessively at work, lack the attachments and parent concern and this may affect their performance academically and even in social relations with other members of the society. Anxiety may result to mental defects and hence with time affecting the general output of the employer in production. Unemployed individuals go through a lot of depression, and low self-esteem, which when given time, may result to psychological problems hence contributing to low life expectancy. In the U.S., report shows that unemployed individuals died at a younger age compared to the stable employed individuals (Magdoff, 2011). It discussed that the decline in earning income resulted to poor health, uncertain meals, and due to anxiety, they became weak early and hence this drew them closer to mortality. The demographic pattern in areas with high unemployment had declined with the increased low paying jobs. Unemployment pushed individuals to consuming alcohol and other substances like bhang and cigarette smoking. For the pregnant unemployed mothers, they get depressed and this makes them give birth to underweight babies who are prone to contracting diseases due to their detrimental health. Children with unemployed parents may experience a decline in the individual well-being. Some children get depressed due to the change in emotions by their parents. Some undergo severe punishments hence more depression and this may trigger young children to get involved in criminal activities and substance abuse risking the loss of lives and punishment by law. Children taken to juvenile courts do not get the opportunities to grow up with their families and the larger society. In the U.S., other negative results may include early age exploitation into sexual activities risking their health and increased contraction of diseases. Children denied their parental love some end up resolving to committing suicide at an early age. It is necessary for parents all over the globe to give love and attention to their kids, no matter how committed they are (Ferris & Stein, 2012). The solidarity in a family is quite influential in boosting the children’s performance and activity in the society. Children who develop close relations to their parents feel comfortable around them, and this enhances the child’s ability to perform well back in school and for life puzzles. Unemployment comes along with fewer finances to cater for their primary needs including food, health, education, and even their physical fitness. Parents due to the insufficient finances to balance with, they may lack the ability to cater for their children’s educational needs. This increases the number of school dropouts in the United States and thereby reducing the literacy levels (MacDonald, 2011). High illiteracy rates among the population results to lack of eligible individuals to serve in the job market and to increase the productions by the institutions. Researchers have it that, the increased unemployment rate in the U.S. has affected the numbers of young people who are getting into families and giving birth due to desperation resulting to below the poverty line living standards. Giving birth at a tender age and without proper financial support individuals are most likely to suffer from health complications and improper care of the born children (Dooley & Prause, 2004). With youths between the ages of fifteen and twenty-four experiencing high rates of unemployment, there has been a same increment in crime levels. In societies that have high unemployment rates, there is a likelihood of insecurity cases and moral crimes like prostitution in pursuit to get incomes (Kayafas, 2008). Young boys without incomes resolve to violent acts like robbery and drug dealing to earn incomes. Due to indulgence in early sexual encounters, girls resolve for abortion to avoid bringing up children at tender ages and without the economic ability. Boys may get involved in sale of illegal items like firearms and drugs. The demand for money also pushes the girls to indulging in prostitution, and some get early pregnancies that mess up the economies further (MacDonald, 2011). Young women who get children at their tender age and without sources of incomes tend to lower their life expectancies since they cannot afford proper health care, food for their children, and even clothes. Due to depression, they lack proper skills and abilities to manage their families. The parent also looks upon their children for financial support, but in vain and hence, this only persist the poverty levels and eventually increases mortality rates. Lack of employment opportunities denies youths the opportunity to gain experience and improve on their professional performance. The U.S., lacked the opportunity to train their youths and give them a competitive environment from which they would learn more about their duties, hence as a result, some remained ineligible for job opportunities due to unemployment (Magdoff, 2011). Individuals are unable to earn incomes despite their academic qualifications; hence, they loose self-esteem and become financially dependent to enhance their survival. People who stay unemployed for long periods may lack their competence in performance and reduces the potential of an individual in production qualities and quantities too. Therefore, the family’s hope in generating income dies since the potential positions are all taken and by getting timely programs to help individuals earn part time incomes for their survival (Dooley & Prause, 2004). Low income among individuals in the economy denies families the added benefit of travelling to meet new friends and even to go and see family members in the rural areas. Social regular meetings are quite necessary since they build relationships with other family members to grow bolder and stronger. Individuals, who also get into contact more often, tend to have more possibility of assisting one another in times of need. Families that do not visit their friends and families who are far from them tend to end up segregated from the others. At most times, either of the two feels forgotten, unloved, and unwanted by the others (MacDonald, 2011). Due to underemployment and unemployment, most of the families in U.S. living in the rural areas, dependent for support from those living in towns and they may not get the expected supports due to the scarcity of resources. The society consists of families that consist of employed and unemployed individuals who together form the society’s economy. A high unemployment rate among families has resulted to increased dependency rates among individuals (Magdoff, 2011). People, who stay for long without job opportunities, happen to change their thinking mentality to issues that do not concern earning employments to acquire incomes for their survival. In such a society, the people are forgotten in job opportunities since they lack contact with those in jobs then the families remain miserable. Families with high unemployment rates tend to withdraw from those in job opportunities and their capable employers and hence this denies them opportunities to job opportunity awareness (Ferris & Stein, 2012). They are isolated economically and at some point socially due to the class divisions. This grows the ignorance rates among the unemployed families and may result to growing unmanageable families, which strain all the available resources. Families with employed individuals in the U.S., have more time not only for their families, but also for the society. These activities give the family relaxation and healthy relations with individuals in the society (Dooley & Prause, 2004). Families also get lessons from the public though continued interactions and chats. The families also exchange information on prominent matters. This is so much unlike the situation for the unemployed who rarely get into interactions with the public, and they never get to share information on emerging factors in the society (Magdoff, 2011). Employed individuals have the courage to take part in societal activities like environmental conservation strategies and youth empowerment programs helping their children in solving dilemmas. Therefore, unemployment tends to build insecurity in the family strategy, denying one the courage to face the society. It withdraws families from societal matters. For the underemployed workers, there tend develop to incapability of balancing between family and work. Families that have been discriminated from job opportunities due to gender, disabilities, or age end up with physical deterioration due to failure to consume foods regularly and even skipping of meals due to stress (Kayafas, 2008). The underemployed end up with fatigue, which may cause unhealthy feedings, and hence such families end up with devastating effects, which hinder the length of their lives and even their ability to give birth to healthy kids. Unhealthy families lack happiness and thereby this results to anger, hate, poor interactions and may experience indulgence in dangerous and other harmful activities for consolation. Families that have unhealthy lifestyles may experience the death of breadwinners leaving behind orphans. With increased numbers of orphaned children and widowed women, dependency rates have also risen and thereby hindering the economic progress of the society (MacDonald, 2011). In the U.S., individuals who enjoy employment benefits are those that have permanent employments. Some even have insurance covers to cater for their expenses in cases of unemployment. For the underemployed individuals, they enjoy tremendously limited benefits, and they lack finances to pay for insurance covers (Ferris & Stein, 2012). Therefore, this exposes them to the risk of failing to manage their primary necessities due to unreliable and insufficient incomes. Children from the incapable families may at times fail to get adequate health services and substandard quality of education. This affects the child in that they too face many challenges in securing job opportunities for themselves in the future. In conclusion, Ferris and Stein (2012), explains it that the real world has been experiencing changes in the economic progress, which has profoundly affected individual’s way of living. Unemployment and underemployment affect the strategy at which the family operates. It is due to- such changes in the economy that U.S. has been experiencing an increase in immoral activities including drug and substance abuse, prostitution, robbery and even abortions have been reported among the unemployed individuals. Families have undergone break-ups, high mortality rates, defected health, and even failure for children to acquire standard education. Therefore, there is a need for the government to provide employment opportunities and to develop guidelines to protect working individuals. References Ferris, K., & Stein, J. (2012). The Real World: An Introduction to Sociology. New York: W W Norton & Co Inc. Kayafas, N. (2008). Welcome to the poverty class: The growing unemployment and underemployment problem. Pittsburgh, Pa: RoseDog Books. MacDonald, R. (2011). Youth transitions, unemployment and underemployment. Journal of Sociology, Vol. 47 Iss. 4, pp. 427-444. Magdoff, F. (2011). Monthly Review: The Jobs Disaster in the United States. Vol. 63 Iss. 2, pp. 1-28. Dooley, D., & Prause, J. (2004). The social costs of underemployment: Inadequate employment as disguised unemployment. Cambridge [u.a.: Cambridge Univ. Press. Read More