Unemployment: Cause and Effect

Unemployment: Cause and Effect

          In the contemporary society, unemployment has become a common phenomenon where everyone is affected in one way or another. This is because jobs have become hard to come by bearing in mind that hundreds of people are qualified while the employers require just a few. Due to unemployment, many people find it quite difficult to live comfortable lives. There are causes of unemployment and resultant effects which have been identified in the contemporary society leading to people ultimately to experience emotional, personal, and financial problems.   

            The main unemployment causes are lay-offs, getting fired, under qualifications, health problems or economic reasons (recession). Lay-offs may be caused by people have gone out of the company’s job specification. Alternatively, others may be laid off because the position they occupy have become expendable and therefore are ultimately sent home so as to save the company operational money. The effect of being laid off is that a person may find it hard getting another job because the reasons why a person was laid off are questionable. People who have been laid off may suffer from emotional stress and depression.

            Getting fired is one of the causes of unemployment. People may be fired as a result of insubordination of the individual, recklessness in personnel dealings at the behest of the employer, involvement in fraud or theft that leads to tainting of the company’s image or the act adversely affects the company, introverted personalities that negatively affect production, under-performance of specified duties, and truancy. In some instances, the economic situations in a company may warrant employers to be edgy and fire employees over trivial mistakes. The consequences to the individual after being sacked may be prolonged periods of unemployment since employers may be reluctant to hire individuals deemed incompetent, lousy and unreliable. Those people who have been fired are affected by emotional, financial and personal problems that may culminate in affecting their body health. When one has been fired, the company withholds most of their compensations for having worked for the company for long. In such cases, people cannot get employed soon enough and because they were not compensated they suffer financial constraints thus being not able to pay their debts. This may result to suicides because they are rejected by the job market and cannot afford decent living.

            Another cause of unemployment is under-qualification of the individuals seeking job opportunities. Lack of required education and training results to automatic disqualification in job opportunities which require employees to possess particular skills required for the performance of specified duties to an employment contract. A person is required to produce a list of referees whom the company may contact to verify the information supplied by the job applicant and confirm that their work record is impeccable as presented. Under qualified people cannot get jobs thus this affects them by being dependent on other people. Under qualified people are adversely affected by unemployment leading to living lives of poverty due to meager wages got from casual jobs. They cannot afford decent housing, health care, and even quality education.

            Health reasons may cause unemployment because no employer would love to have employees who do not pass the fitness test. People who have health problems are always asking for sick leaves and at times may not meet set targets because of their absenteeism. People with disabilities may not be employed because the nature of work does not qualify. The job may demand a lot of walking and thus such disable people are disqualified on those grounds. Health problems or disability may affect a person such that he or she cannot get a job for over a long time. This negatively affect them leading to frustration and lack of the morale to live.

            Economic instability is a troubling cause of unemployment. Economic recession which caused global financial crisis caused worldwide job loss. Many people become unemployed simply because the companies that had employed them were adversely affected leading bankruptcy and eventual liquidation. Families which had the father and mother unemployed because of economic recession faced the challenge of affording the lifestyle they previously enjoyed. Due to stress and financial debts, such families are facing the challenge of bankruptcy also because they cannot afford to maintain mortgages they had previously taken. Such are the causes and effects of economic recession taking toll on the common men. Family break-ups and divorces have been the effects of economic reasons resulting from unemployment.

            In conclusion, unemployment has various causes and effects which translate to such people facing all manner of problems. Causes of unemployment are numerous and include, lay-offs, getting fired, economic, under qualifications, and health reasons. The resultant effects bear toll on the unemployed person leading to personal, financial, and emotional problems. The severity of the effects is such that they have caused family break-ups, divorces, frustrations and depression such that the victims commit suicide to end their misery.