The fight against unemployment
“I am a failure, I won’t get any job!”
Have you ever heard someone saying this?
Have you maybe even been that person?
Losing employment is one of life’s most stressful experiences.
Aside from the obvious financial distress it can cause, losing a job can also take a heavy toll on one’s mood, relationships, and overall mental and emotional health.
Societal costs of high unemployment include poverty, homelessness, physical and mental illness, decline in life satisfaction, higher crime and a reduced rate of volunteerism.
Thus, fighting unemployment is one of the world biggest challenges. Some countries could achieve major improvements by producing more goods and services in a given time frame (i.e. one year). In other words, they could achieve lower unemployment rate by increasing the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
Nowadays, countries having low unemployment rate such as USA and China have the world’s highest GDP, whereas in South Africa where the unemployment rate is much higher, the GDP is relatively low as shown in the visualizations below:
Who is responsible?
Increasing the country’s GDP is an effective solution of the unemployment issue because of the job opportunities it creates. This can be achieved by promoting education, developing new technologies, improving infrastructure including roads, schools, hospitals, phone lines, transport, electricity, Internet, water supply…
It is also recommended to adopt more flexible working practices: people could choose to work fewer hours, giving the chance to raise employment in the economy and resulting in unemployed population getting a part time job.
Fighting unemployment is a difficult long journey and the contribution of both private and public sector is mandatory in order to make it happen.