EQUALITY AND EMPLOYMENT
EQUALITY AND EMPLOYMENT
Xiaolin Qi
There is no such thing as a true transcendentalism, and therefore there is no true individual.
Society creates humans, and people tend to rely on society. And regardless of how people view their communities, it is what their lives depend on. With such a system, there will always be issues lingering around it, causing minor and major side effects. Then it becomes people’s job as a component of this system to diagnose problems and try to solve them.
With the economy struggling to recover from the subprime crisis and the failure of the Chinese stock market, job opportunities have become one of the most serious social issues in recent years. In both developed and developing countries, unemployment rates have skyrocketed in the last five years. Even in the U.S., the unemployment rate has shown no significant reduction since the Obama administration. Considering the overall status of the global economy, job opportunities may not recover for up to a decade. Clearly it is a problem when 99% of the population have to worry about their everyday lives.
With a majority of people worried about their jobs, rich people remain in control of the market. From wealth distribution to labor force employment, all issues facing the common people are not at all a concern for these individuals. The gap in employment rates between America’s highest- and lowest-income families has stretched to its widest levels since officials began tracking it a decade ago. According to government data reported by the Associated Press, unemployment rates for lowest-income families (those earning less than $20,000) have reached 21%, nearly matching the rate for all workers during the Great Depression. The unemployment rate for the poor has skyrocketed since the 2008 financial crisis and has never fully recovered, even under the Obama administration.
The unemployment rate is also a huge problem when it comes to race. Data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics cover the age range from 16 to 19 and indicate that, for whites in this age range, the official unemployment rates are about 15.7% for Hispanics and 20.8% for African-Americans. This huge gap has been around for many decades and still has considerable influence on the economy. For every level of educational attainment, blacks have unemployment rates that are similar to or higher than less educated white counterparts. For instance, whites with only high school diplomas have unemployment rates similar to blacks with college degrees: 4.6% versus 4.1%. The unemployment rate has been a problem for minority groups in America, and it is expected to remain a serious problem in the foreseeable future.
There is no doubt that the economy has been expanding in recent years. However, there remain serious problems for people without jobs. It is possible that this economic expansion may reduce the unemployment rate, but this will ultimately depend on the speed at which the employment-to-population ratio increases and the increase in the productivity of the workers added as the labor market expands. Based on the current economic situation, the market is not looking good for people.
