quotations about unemployment
Full employment does not mean literally no unemployment; that is to say, it does not mean that every man and woman in the country who is fit and free for work is employed productively every day of his or her working life ... Full employment means that unemployment is reduced to short intervals of standing by, with the certainty that very soon one will be wanted in one's old job again or will be wanted in a new job that is within one's powers.
WILLIAM HENRY BEVERIDGE
Full Employment in a Free Society
That all people are equal but some people are more equal than others is nowhere more true than in the experience of unemployment. Unemployment is not a price 'we' all have to pay to restructure the economy and hold down inflation. Presented in this way, the real story of unemployment is hidden -- that it is the same people who are always at risk of unemployment in an inefficient labour market founded on structured inequalities of locality, sex, race, disability, and age.
EITHNE MCLAUGHLIN
preface and acknowledgements, Understanding Unemployment: New Perspectives on Active Labour Market Policies
Essentially, unemployment raises critical issues about distribution and fair shares of work and income. At present the increasingly deregulated labour-market is failing to distribute jobs and incomes effectively. It is also failing to produce enough quality jobs. Only public-sector intervention will fix these problems. In the end it boils down to a moral choice about whether we are willing to share jobs and income more fairly.
STEPHEN BELL
The Unemployment Crisis in Australia: Which Way Out?
Today the unemployed are treated little better than ex-offenders. It's as if just to be unemployed is considered an offence against society and jobseekers are treated as if on some sort of moral probation for which they have to do penance.
ALAN MORRISON
"Rapturous Riposte To The Austerity Era", The People's Daily Morning Star, May 4, 2017
I didn't actually set out to study unemployment. I wanted to study working in the tech industry following the dot com crash in 2001, but when I got to the field, everybody was out of work. I was going to these professional events looking to network with CEOs and start-up companies. I kept meeting job seekers who were looking to talk to the same people I was looking to talk to. I started to realize the bigger story about work in high tech was among people looking for work, not people that had secure jobs.
CARRIE LANE
"Cal State Fullerton Professor Co-Edits New Anthology on Unemployment", OC Weekly, April 12, 2017
He looks at how embodied the shame and the pain of unemployment is. These workers, who work really physically demanding jobs, were healthy while they were working. And then, when they're not working, the trauma of the job loss and of continued unemployment just plays out in their bodies and minds in really tangible ways.
CARRIE LANE
"Cal State Fullerton Professor Co-Edits New Anthology on Unemployment", OC Weekly, April 12, 2017
I imagine this loss of faith in oneself and the growing belief that the ongoing rejections are never going to turn around is common among the unemployed. I just never thought I'd be one of them.
VICKI NASH
"I'm unemployed and ashamed. The idea that people don't want to work is a ridiculous myth", The Guardian, March 21, 2017
The primary solution to avoid technological unemployment is by investing in human capital.
ELFREN S. CRUZ
"Technological unemployment", Philippine Star, May 3, 2017
Virtually all unemployment is voluntary, since there are almost always some vacancies for jobs which the unemployed could accept.
C. A. E. GOODHART
Money, Information and Uncertainty
The ability to hold a job brings valuable information on wellbeing and performance status. And workforce exclusion has been associated with increased risk of depression, mental health problems and even suicide.
RASMUS ROERTH
"Unemployment is linked to a 50 per cent higher risk of death in patients with heart failure", The Economic Times, May 1, 2017
Unemployment is the number one issue. The economy is doing slightly better and we've had a slow decline in unemployment in the past few months, but we've had mass unemployment for 30 years. French people are now at a point where they all have someone in their inner circle affected by unemployment. This is the key issue that people want to see solved.
EMMANUELLE SCHON-QUINLIVAN
"From economic woes to terrorism, a daunting to-do list for France's next president", CNN, April 25, 2017
I think the bigger story here for all of this is that [unemployment] is draining the economy. It's quietly doing it. It's kind of a secret cancer out there that no one's really addressing.
ANDREW SOERGEL
"Long-Term Unemployment: The Economy's 'Secret Cancer'", U.S. News & World Report, June 9, 2016
You can make more money on unemployment than you can going down and getting one of those jobs that is an honest job, but it doesn't pay as much. And so, that's what's happened to us is that we have put in so much entitlement into our government, that we really have spoiled our citizenry and said you don't want the jobs that are available.
SHARRON ANGLE
interview with KRNO Radio, July 14, 2010
I don't pity any man who does hard work worth doing. I admire him. I pity the creature who does not work, at whichever end of the social scale he may regard himself as being.
THEODORE ROOSEVELT
speech in Chattanooga, Tennessee
The importance of having a job extends far beyond the salary attached to it. A large stream of research has shown that the non-monetary aspects of employment are also key drivers of people's wellbeing. Social status, social relations, daily structure, and goals all exert a strong influence on people's happiness.
JAN-EMMANUEL DE NEVE & GEORGE WARD
"Does Work Make You Happy? Evidence from the World Happiness Report", Harvard Business Review, March 20, 2017
Nearly half of unemployed Americans have quit looking for work, and the numbers are even worse for the long-term jobless, according to a poll released Wednesday that paints a grim picture of the labor market. Some 59 percent of those who have been out of work for two years or more say they have stopped looking.
JEFF COX
"US unemployed have quit looking for jobs at a 'frightening' level", CNBC, June 8, 2016
Entry into unemployment is assumed to be exogenous; it results from stochastic structural change and from new entry into the labor force. The transition out of unemployment is modeled as a trading process, with unemployed workers and firms with job vacancies wanting to trade labor services.
CHRISTOPHER A. PISSARIDES
Equilibrium Unemployment Theory
Although the usefulness and accuracy of the unemployment measure have been debated (participation in the labor force is near generational lows; granted, this is partly due to retirement on one end of the age spectrum and greater education attainment on the other, but regardless of the reasons, fewer people are working), unemployment is low and employment is growing at a steady clip. The relative health of the labor market has many policymakers at the Fed stating the United States is either at or near full employment. Full employment is synonymous with mission accomplished on maximum employment.
SAMUEL RINES
"The Federal Reserve's War on Unemployment Is Far from Over", National Interest, April 11, 2017
Not only are the unemployed generally unhappier than those in work, we find in our analyses that people generally do not adapt over time to becoming unemployed. More than this, spells of unemployment also seem to have a scarring effect on people's wellbeing, even after they have regained employment.
JAN-EMMANUEL DE NEVE & GEORGE WARD
"Does Work Make You Happy? Evidence from the World Happiness Report", Harvard Business Review
Unemployment hot spots where high levels of illegal drug use are detected in wastewater will be selected as trial sites for a crackdown on welfare-fuelled substance abuse, as the government fends off claims the testing regime will demonise the unemployed.
SARAH MARTIN
"Budget 2017: crackdown in ?jobless hot spots flush with drugs", The Australian, May 11, 2017