Question

In your contribution to this week’s Discussion Board, you will discuss how you are affected by unemployment, one of the country's biggest macroeconomic policy concerns. Address both of the following in your discussion:

1. Explain an experience that someone you know, including yourself, had with unemployment. Think about the reason for the unemployment, and how long it lasted.
   • The following is a list of possible causes for unemployment. Choose the one that most closely fits your experience.
   • Be sure to explain.
     • Seasonal
     • Recession
     • A change in technology
     • Your company relocated and laid off workers
     • Other
2. Did you or your acquaintance take a part-time job or a job for which they were overqualified to ensure they would have an income?  
3. Over the last 7 years, the national unemployment rate has dropped steadily. How has that affected you? Please explain.

Answer 1

A friend of mine recently lost his job due to changes in his company's structure. Being a manual tester of software development, with his company moving to automation and cloud services, his role was laid off, as no more manual testing was needed to be run on the software and thus he was laid off. The company needed more of those workers who were efficient in automation services. This is a clear case of unemployment due to change in technology, or structural unemployment. Yes, a fall in natural rate of unemployment is a good thing as it means people are now more easily able to get desired jobs, as frictional unemployment drops. It affects workers positively, as it reduces their search time between jobs.