Thursday, October 17, 2019

Wages ,Unions ,and Labor Term Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Wages ,Unions ,and Labor - Term Paper Example Moon (2011) cited that the weekly applications of unemployment insurance fell to a 3-1/2 year low. The unemployment rate was reduced to 8.6 percent last November from 9.0 percent in October this year (Dalgleish, 2011). Though this shows an improvement of 0.4 percent, the present unemployment rate is still high (Harrison & Berg, 2011; Felsenthal & da Costa, 2011). This improvement might be undone if the bill which cuts funds allocated for defense in the 2012 budget will be approved by the senate and the president. This bill will cost 800,000 jobs and this might rose up to 1.5 million jobs in the following decade due to legislation passed in August (Felsenthal & da Costa, 2011). High unemployment rate was one of the reasons why thousands of demonstrators marched on ports from Southern California to Alaska last December 12. This march included two of the largest labor unions in country: the longshoremen’s union and the Teamsters (Harrison & Berg, 2011). Part of the rally’s focus was for non-union members; independent workers who earn low wages such as truck drivers said Harrison and Berg (2011). High unemployment rate is one of the major problems of the economy of the United States at present times. ... The U.S. GDP and Unemployment Rate To analyze the current situation in an economic perspective, the country’s data on its Gross Domestic Product (GDP) must first be known together with its unemployment rate. It is important to take note of the economic output at the macro level According to Williamson (2008), â€Å"when the aggregate real GDP is high, the unemployment rate tends to be low since the two variables are countercyclical in nature (p. 594). Graphing these two sets of data will serve as a tool for analysis. Table 1. U.S. Gross Domestic Product 2011  ­Ã‚ ­Ã‚ ­Ã‚ ­Ã‚ ­Ã‚ ­Ã‚ ­Ã‚ ­Ã‚ ­Ã‚ ­Ã‚ ­ Quarter 1 Quarter 2 Quarter3  ­Ã‚ ­Ã‚ ­Ã‚ ­Ã‚ ­Ã‚ ­Ã‚ ­Ã‚ ­ GDP 0.4 1.3 2.0 Source: Bureau of Economic Analysis Table 2. U.S. Unemployment Rate 2011  ­Ã‚ ­Ã‚ ­Ã‚ ­Ã‚ ­Ã‚ ­Ã‚ ­Ã‚ ­Ã‚ ­Ã‚ ­Ã‚ ­Ã‚ ­Ã‚ ­Ã‚ ­Ã‚ ­Ã‚ ­Ã‚ ­Ã‚ ­Ã‚ ­Ã‚ ­ Month Unemployment Rate January 9.0 February 8.9 March 8.8 April 9.0 May 9.1 June 9.2 July 9.1 August 9.1 September 9.1 October 9.0 November 8.6 Sou rce: Bureau of Labor Statistics Graph 1. U.S. GDP and Unemployment Rate 2011 Graph 1 show that the data is in accordance with what Williamson (2008) mentioned regarding GDP and unemployment rate. This further implies that despite the European debt crisis, the U.S. economy is still doing well at the moment, especially since an increase in GDP has been noted in the last quarter together with a significant decrease in unemployment. Production output has increased implying increased earnings. The number of people employed increased which means less spending for the government since the people who avail unemployment benefits decreased. If the bill which permitted the cut of funds in the budget for defense is approved, 800,000 workers will lose their job and the unemployment rate will increase once more. This will lead lesser production

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