This is my research assesment it's not great, i only got 65%, but it may give you a guide.
Section 1: Full Marks
UNEMPLOYMENT
Unemployment refers to the number of people who are currently out of work and are actively seeking employment. For a person to be classed as actively seeking work they must complete at least one activity from a strict criteria, including:
• Checking job advertisements from different sources on a frequent basis.
• Responding to these advertisements by applying for the jobs and attending interviews.
• Registering with Employment National (Commonwealth Employment Service)
• Put your name down with an employment agency that is apart of Job Network.
In Australia people are categorised in to three classes, employed, unemployed and those not included in the labour market.
To be classed as employed people must only work a minimum of 1 hour per week. So, part-time and full time workers are both classed as employed. This has lead to underemployed workers being deemed as fully employed.
The rate of unemployment is calculated using the equation:
In Australia, the number of people unemployed and the rate of unemployment is calculated by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS), and numbers are taken from a monthly survey of the labour force carried out by the ABS.
CONSEQUENCES OF UNEMPLOYMENT
Economic
• OPPORTUNITY COST
Unemployment means the economy is not using all resources to their full advantage, and so its production levels are within the production possibility frontier. This lowers household incomes and expenditure, and decreases sales and profits. Consequently, when unemployment levels are high and sales and profits decrease by large amounts, businesses fail due to the reduced, business investment and production.
• LOWER LIVING STANDARDS
When unemployed, people continue to consume resources while not contributing to the production process, they create higher costs for the employed people and in the long run reduce a countries living standard. This lowers the production of consumer and capital goods. When the production of consumer goods decreases, it has a short-term affect of reducing the rate of economic growth. A decrease in the production of capital goods leads to a slower rate of economic growth in the future, with a decreased capacity to produce goods and services.
• DECLINE IN LABOUR MARKET SKILLS FOR THE LONG-TERM UNEMPLOYED
Unemployment leads to existing unemployed workers losing essential skills that leave them without work for long periods of time. When unemployment reaches high levels the workers lose their labour market skills, self-esteem and experience which makes them unemployable. This cyclical unemployment turns to long-term structural unemployment, a progression known as hysteresis.
• COSTS TO THE GOVERNMENT
The Commonwealth budget is influenced when high levels of unemployment influence the government’s revenue and expenditure. High unemployment generates less tax revenue and the government is forced to pay out more transfer payments (unemployment benefits) to the unemployed. This increase in expenditure and decrease in expenditure will cause a relapse in the government’s budget.
SOCIAL
Unemployment in the young and unskilled means a loss of income for these people and is one of the main causes of poverty in Australia. Increased unemployment levels lead to a relocation of income, and higher income inequality.
Unemployment causes social problems such as:
• “Financial hardship and poverty
• Increased levels of debt
• Housing problems and Homelessness
• Family tension and breakdown
• Boredom
• Alienation from society
• Increased social isolation
• Crime
• Deterioration of confidence and self-esteem
• Loss of work skills
• Poor health, psychological disorders and suicide.”
This creates economic costs for the community given that extra resources are needed to deal with these issues, instead of being used to satisfy other community wants.
*Leading Edge Education
Section 2: 80% ( I left out the definitions)
TYPES CAUSES
• Changes in technology => loss of jobs
• Skills in older industries no longer needed in new industries
• Changes in pattern of D for gds + S.
• Changes in geographical locations of industries
Structural change
• loss of jobs in less efficient industries
• areas undergoing major reforms/renovations
Technological change
• new methods means substitution of labour for capital
• workers become redundant
Productivity
• low productivity encourages employers to use capital instead of labour
• skills of unemployed different to that demanded
• Decrease in economic activity
• Decrease Demand and Production => decrease employment opportunity. Constraints on economic growth
• Inflation
• Current Account Deficit
• People moving from job to job
• Time
• Inevitable
• Employment placement centres introduced to decrease the level of frictional unemployment
• Regular times (e.g. fruit season, Santa at Chrissie) (school leavers, December to March)
• Official statistics adjusted to take fluctuations.
Rising participation rates
• Increased labour force => increased unemployment
• More people looking/willing to work
• Job availability doesn’t increase
• Don’t fit with unemployment definition
• Not looking for work
• Not participating in labour force
• ‘discouraged jobseekers’
Underemployment
• People who work for less than full-time hours per week
• would like to work more hours.
Long-term
• out of work for < 12 months (a result of structural unemployment)
Section 3: 60% ( Doesn't include the present trend)
How the natural rate affects the policies used to control unemployment.
The macroeconomic policies, Monetary policy and Fiscal policy are policies that can be used to control unemployment. In Australia the Monetary policy is the one the government is currently using. The government has employed the Reserve Bank of Australia to “control the amount of currency available and the rate at which people can borrow money” which is the main purpose of a Monetary policy.
By using this policy the bank aims to maintain:
• “Inflation at the targeted 2% to 3%
• Full employment at the NAIRU (the non-accecelerated inflation rate of unemployment) between 5% and 7%.
• Economic growth between 3% and 4% to sustain the living standards and welfare of the people of Australia.”
The NAIRU, or the natural rate of unemployment, is the rate of unemployment which can be achieved without a rise in the rate of inflation.
The NAIRU of a country can be calculated with the American formula:
When quantity of labour demanded equals quantity of labour supplied, it is classed full employment. When full employment occurs there is still unemployment and this is classed as the natural rate of unemployment. In Australia it is probable that the natural rate of unemployment is somewhere between 5% and 7% of the workforce.
If a policy doesn’t comply with the natural rate of unemployment, than a government won’t use it to control unemployment. Through using the Monetary policy, and controlling interest rates, the reserve bank can control unemployment because:
• Low interest rates => an increase in house purchasing/building => and increase in D for household goods and building materials => an increase in employment, income and spending (lower unemployment) => an increase in inflation.
NSW HSC online -
http://hsc.csu.edu.au/economics/policies_mgt/2592/Topic4Tutorial1.htm l
Section 4: I won't include it because it was shit.