Economic Challenges Group

- Strike: A collective refusal by employees to work under the current conditions - Used to bargain for wages and workers' rights - inefficient, because it incurs costs on both the employers and the employees

- Lockout: when an employer refuses to let employees work - Used frequently in the 1880s and 1890s - Can lead to the replacement of striking workers

People with higher degrees are statistically less likely to become unemployed. 

Describes several ways of reducing unemployment.

Monetary Policies: - Lower interest rates: This would increase consumer spending, and stimulate the economy. Also, businesses can borrow at lower costs, making them more likely to expand and hire more employees. Fiscal Policies: - Tax cuts and increased government spending: these would also stimulate the economy, resulting in more workers hired. - Funding education: increases the employability of workers - Unemployment benefits: the unemployed people are more likely to spend their money, and giving them money could increase the demands for many goods. More demand= more workers needed - Disadvantage: Creates deficits.

Wage subsidies can be classified as worker-side or firm-side programs Worker-side: grant workers subsidies when they get a job. Used to increase participation in the labour market. Firm-side: grant companies subsidies to encourage hiring. Used when labour is underutilized or unemployed.

The different types of subsidies that are provided to Canadian businesses.

Austerity measures taken by the government to cut down spending will inflict huge losses in the public and private sector jobs.  Government is now relying on corporate tax for funding through tax dollars, but this will not solve the problem 

Government intervention: providing training programs and assisting those who are not skilled to break barriers to employment 

Is Globalization good? It is the integration of economic systems across the world. Many new opportunities are opened with globalization (especially in IT).  However, is it also a leading cause in suppression of human rights, and does globalization cause devastation to environment and culture. Also, with globalization is it debatable who is benefiting more (the poor taking on the jobs provided by globalization or the rich exploiting these jobs)  

Since Obama took office, he has passed a number of bills, one of them being a tax cut and unemployment fund extension agreement. The bill, known as the American Jobs Act is an extension on the cut in payroll taxes. This bill aims to help stimulate the economy and decrease the unemployment rate.

Before, the U.S food stamp program required an asset test-- only households with small assets could receive food stamps. Also, households could only receive food stamps for a certain period of time if they were not working. However, the food-stamp program no longer uses the asset test.   Also, due to the recession, many participants are now allowed to continuously receive food stamps even if they are unemployed. As a result, participation in the program is now more common among the unemployed. In fact, more than 50% of the households with at least one unemployed are receiving food stamps. 

Individual Costs: - When people lose their jobs, their standard of living drops because even with government assistance and employment benefits, they are getting barely 50% of what they were making  -Erosion of skills occurs when people are unemployed for prolonged period of times. (useful talents go to waste) -Unemployment discourages people from getting an education and providing an education to their children Societal Costs: -Studies show higher unemployment rate lead to a higher crime rate Cost to Country: -High costs to government to provide: Unemployment benefits. ,medicare, food assistance  - Huge tax cuts because less people are making enough money to pay taxes. Government does have as much tax assistance coming in, yet they are paying more for assistance 

Union Benefits: More likely that employer partially sponsors retirement plan More likely to be covered by employer provided health insurance  Unions Bargain power & voice collective opinions 

Income inequality is a problem because over recent years the richer have been making more and the poorer making less. There is high levels of income inequality, a unequal way of splitting a counties income. Market Forces: Increase demand for high skilled labor, increase globalization. This creates more inequality of income. Skilled workers on high demand, non skilled payed bare minimum.

Unemployment in people leads them to be frustrated, become ill, abuse drugs and cause crime, be lonely, live in poverty, and sometimes even commit suicide.  Families breakup more, and violence is more visible in families. To deal with unemployment people significantly cut their spending and/or they go out to obtain low wage paying jobs to make ends meet. This is why we see lots of young people juggling many jobs. More often though they must resort to government assistance and live in very poor living conditions.  In the community there is a higher crime rate and the government sees loss in come tax, loss in national insurance contributions, and loss in added tax (since people are not spending as much)  Yet, governments must increase their spending on EI, and invest more in a social security support system, police and health services. 

The possibility of having one's job outsourced, is a daunting one. Thus, workers that feel there is a chance their job may be outsourced have a minimal sense of job security. In addition, their performance is usually less productive and efficient. This decline in worker performance leads to even more outsourcing by the employers. Outsourcing is a viscous cycle that leaves the domestic workers worried, uncommitted and unproductive.

- Not many people acknowledged the problems of unemployment  - Long Term Unemployment is a problem (people don't have jobs for a long time) - Government policy can't keep up with the falling job rate  -Government Solution: guarantee everyone who has been unemployed for more than a year a job at minimum wage in a government or voluntary sector  -Demographics: Older women have been getting more jobs than men 

The highest unemployment rates in Alberta's booming economy are in the most populated cities. The increase in job opportunities has many getting back into the market to look for employment. Workers are inclined to looking for jobs in the larger cities, but an increase in the number of individuals seeking employment has pushed the unemployment rates up in major cities.