Unemployment and Government Intervention Strategies Research Paper

Unemployment and Government Intervention Strategies - Research Paper Example Unemployment and Government Intervention Strategies The report reveals that unemployment rate rose to 8.4 %. This is the highest unemployment rate captured since the year 1996. The report further indicates that the statistics of citizens without employment hit a record of 2.67 million in the period between November and January. This increase by 28,000 unemployment numbers was recorded in October in 2011. Moreover, this report shows that unemployment figures in the year 2011 was higher by 148,000 as compared to the year 2010. There were also noticeable differences in unemployment figures between men and women. The number of jobless men was 1.54 between November and January. That of women without employment was 1.13 million in the three months period. According to the Office of National Statistics, the number of people claiming Jobseekers Allowance in December 2011 hit a 1.6 million. This number marked an increment of 1,200 from the unemployment Data collected in October. The report asserts that the number of young people aged 16-24 and seeking employment increased to a new record of 1.043 million. With greater numbers of employees, lay-offs in the banks, public sector, and private sector the unemployment situation in UK may aggravate. This is a matter of urgency concern and the governments in UK should take sound interventions to curb it. Persistently, high unemployment creates huge costs for individuals and the economy of a nation as a whole. Some of costs are difficulty to value and measure, especially the long-term social costs. The economy as a whole suffers because national product falls as a direct consequence of the inability of the market to equalize the marginal products of equally productive labor. Unemployment presents a waste in national scarce resource. The economic output could be higher if the unemployed are at work. It leads to poverty for those people without an employment. Therefore, unemployment is an indicator of nation’s poor economic performance (McEachem, 2011). Unemployment has both private and social cost. To start with, it is a source of stress and ill health to many people. Without a stable income, individuals cannot afford basic health care. This means that an individual cannot get better medical treatment. This results to lower life expectances. Individuals die either out of disease complication or out of incapability to afford proper diet. Second, unemployment destabilizes the living standards of individual. Jobless individuals cannot cater for the basic needs of their families. Inability to provide for the family may lead to homelessness, misunderstanding, divorce, and indebtedness (McEachem, 2011). Third, joblessness leads to loss of skills necessary for individual development. Individuals who stay away from work environment do not have an opportunity to hone their skills to respond to the current labor demand. The prowesses of unemployed individuals lose applicability due to changing trends in the labor market (Kitson, 2010). This in turn can lead to skepticism and pessimism about the true meaning and value of education. This can change individuals to have a narrow focus on education and training. It therefore means that an individual will be less willing to invest in the education system of a nation. The quality of education will dwindle robbing the count ry its potential human resource. Fourth, the