Unemployment in the United States
The domestic issue that I am going to review is the unemployment rate in the United States. In the past year, the United States has seen an extreme influx of people unemployed. As of November 2010, the unemployment rate in the US reached 9.80 percent, a total number of 15.1 million people. From 1948 until 2010 the United States' unemployment rate averaged 5.70 percent reaching an historical high of 10.80 percent in November of 1982 and a record low of 2.50 percent in May of 1953 (1). The unemployment rate is calculated by taking the total amount of people who are out of work but seeking employment and dividing that by the total amount of people in the labor force. The labor force is defined as anyone who is either currently working at a job, or actively seeking a job (2). There are many factors that contributed to the recent spike in unemployment. The major factor with the recent high unemployment is the recession. A recession is when GDP growth slows, businesses stop expanding, employment falls, unemployment rises, and housing prices decline (3). Although this is the primary reason for the recent decline in employment, there are other factors which contribute to unemployment. Factors such as willingness to work, disability, attitude towards employers and discrimination in the workplace are examples of factors that do not change regardless how the economy is doing. Unfortunately, many people deal with discrimination in the workplace on a consistent basis when it comes to the opportunity to either being promoted or getting the job in the first place. As of November 2010, the unemployment rates for blacks are 16.0 percent, Hispanics are 13.2 percent, Asians are at 7.6 percent and whites were calculated at 8.9 percent.
There are many sociological concepts which pertain to the unemployment issue right now in the United States. One of these is how employers perceive certain types of people looking for work. Stereotypes of certain ethnic groups or even ones gender play a role in the hiring of workers. It is easy for employers to fall back into their categoric knowing of those who they intend to hire. Categoric knowing is defined as the classification of others on the basis of limited information obtained visually and perhaps verbally. As everybody should know, first appearances are huge in a job interview and it is advised by career experts to not show tattoos, shave clean and to not have an abundance of piercings. The concept of categoric knowing has been accepted by society to the point where experts advise those looking for jobs to conform to the norms of the workplace in which they intend to work. Those looked at has having too many tattoos or piercings may be perceived as unmanageable by their intended employer.
The conflict theory best exemplifies the competition for work these days while America is getting out of its recession. Proponents of conflict theory see society as being continually engaged in a series of disagreements, tensions, and clashes as different groups compete for limited resources (4). This theory is influenced by Karl Marx's socioeconomic view of an elite exploiting the masses. In today’s workplace these limited resources are jobs and the different groups looking for them are having to compete for them. Karl Marx had it correct when in today’s society the elite, being employers, are exploiting the masses, those looking for jobs. There is such an abundance of people looking for work that employers are able to filter through thousands of applications and find those who are willing to work for the cheapest and in turn exploit their work. Unfortunately because of the lack of jobs, those looking for work have a false consciousness about the work they are doing because to them they need the work to put food on the table. However, on the opposite side, companies are exploiting these workers because on a larger scale they are working for virtually nothing. This type of exploitation can largely be seen in the agriculture field where illegal immigrants compete for low-paying jobs while being exploited by their employers because of their willingness to work long hours for cheap.
References
1. http://www.tradingeconomics.com/Economics/Unemployment-Rate.aspx?Symbol=USD
2. http://www.ehow.com/how-does_5124257_unemployment-rate-calculated.html
3. http://useconomy.about.com/od/grossdomesticproduct/f/Recession.htm
4. Parrillo, Vincent. Understanding Race and Ethnic Relations. Pearson, Print. P. 10
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