Monthly Economic Monitoring of Ukraine No.230, March 2024
Lack of economic opportunity and unemployment
1. Lack of economic opportunity and
unemployment
Introduction
Unemployment — and the lack of necessary skills for employment, particularly among
youth under age 25 — is one of the issues I hear about most as I speak with world
leaders, hotel owners and employees in the thousands of communities where Hilton
operates. It’s no surprise why: The Economist estimates that there may be as many as
290 million 15-to-24-year-olds not participating in the labor market. These 290 million
bright minds — a group almost as large as the U.S. population — could be making our
communities stronger and bringing fresh solutions to the world’s biggest challenges. By
failing to invest the time, energy and resources needed to help these young people
succeed, we’re jeopardizing the future of the global economy.
This crisis has many roots. In some countries, the reasons are cultural - for instance,
girls not receiving the same schooling or job opportunities. In others, they’re tied to
poor economic conditions or geopolitical issues like the refugee crisis.
There’s also a real skills gap. Even in developed economies, where enrollment in upper
secondary schools is often near 100 percent, nearly one in five students do not acquire a
minimum level of basic skills needed to be gainfully employed. And McKinsey reports
only 43 percent of employers can find enough skilled entry-level workers. Schooling and
technical skills alone aren’t enough; young people also need “soft skills” like
communication, problem-solving and cross-cultural competencies to be successful.
What is the effect of this issue?
Being employed is important for young people in order to feel accepted in the society,
therefore not having job can cause economic, cultural and social isolation. Moreover,
studies have found that youth unemployment has a negative effect on economic growth
and productivity. It doesn't only leads to reduced productivity and gross domestic
product (GDP) but also increases the economic costs for the state, since there are many
money to be paid on social benefits and less money coming from taxes.
2. Where is this happening?
The 20 countries with the highest unemployment rate as of 2015 are Zimbabwe,
Liberia, Burkina Faso, Cocoas Islands, Djibouti, Republic of Congo, Senegal, Nepal,
Gaza Strip, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Haiti ,Kenya, Syria, Swaziland, Marshall Islands,
Afghanistan, Grenada, Mauritania, Kosovo, Kiribati but it also happens in many
countries.
3. What causes unemployment
There are many reasons why someone who is able to and wants to work may be
without a job:
Performance issues
If a person lacks the skills to perform their duties on the job, is tardy or absent
from work often, or is involved in personality conflicts with co-workers or
management, he or she may be let go from employment.
Economic conditions
In a situation where a company needs to cut costs, it may decide to offer
employees an incentive to take early retirement or lay them off altogether. A
person on temporary layoff from work and waiting to be recalled back to work
can be considered unemployed.
Mismatch between available workers and positions to be filled
When there are more workers available than positions to be filled, unemployment
rates for will rise. When there are positions waiting to be filled, but available
workers don't have the necessary training or skills to do the jobs, unemployment
rates will be higher than when there is a surplus of available job openings
compared to people looking for work.
Lack of experience
Unemployment rates among young people tend to be higher than for other
segments of the population. This is due to a lack of experience which makes it
more difficult for them to find jobs, and they can't gain the practical experience
they need unless they can find someone willing to hire them.
Voluntary unemployment
There are some people who are between jobs because of choices they have made.
They may have resigned from a job in anticipation of a move to another location
before they have another job lined up or be planning to return to school.
4. Consequences of Unemployment
There are several consequences of unemployment that you need to be aware of.
They range from those that affect the individual and his or her family to those
that have an impact on the economy as a whole.
A person who has recently lost his or her job may first be in shock at what has
happened. All of a sudden the individual doesn't have the regular routine they
had when they were working. Unemployed people may have concerns that their
current situation may mean that they will not be able to find another job. Mixed
in with the feelings of shock may be concerns about being able to meet their
financial obligations until they are able to find work again.
If the job search takes a long time or the person doesn't have savings or other
resources to tide them over until he or she is once again in the workforce, the
situation may be very stressful. In addition to going through the steps involved in
looking for work, the person must also try to find a way to meet current financial
obligations, often with very limited resources. Job loss can result in strained
relationships and increased stress for the unemployed person and his or her
family.
When there is work available but not enough trained personnel to perform it,
then productivity goes down. Companies may lose money because they are not
able to serve their customers properly. Their clientele will go elsewhere if they
feel that their needs are not being met. The workers that are employed at the
company may be overburdened from excessive employment demands, and be
prone to taking extra time off from work or burnout.
As you can see, understanding unemployment causes and consequences involves
more than looking at the individual who is between jobs. Unemployment has a
far-ranging effect on many parts of society.
5. How can we solve this?
We can solve this by ensuring political stability, controlling population growth in
a country, encouraging entrepreneurship (self-employment), improving standard
of education, building more industries so it creates more job opportunities,
saying "no" to laziness, trying to be creative and positively competitive and above
all, we must be positive minded in our goal to stop unemployment around the
world.
As we all know, unemployment has become one of the major problems our
society facing today. Graduates are jobless and undergraduates had lost hope.
Unemployment has posed a lot of problems in the world and has resulted to
increase in crimes in society. Look around you, the world is evil. Unemployment
has made people educated or not educated to direct their knowledge and skills to
a negative end. These are the consequences of unemployment. If the world must
reduce the rate of crime occurrence, then unemployment must be permanently
eliminated and this can only be achieved if the government and we, people work
harmoniously. In other words, all hands must be on deck to achieve massive
success in this problem.