Effects of Unemployment in Jamaica, Free Essay

A social issue refers to a challenge that hinders a society or individuals from meeting their needs. In Jamaica, unemployment is a social issue that has negatively influenced the daily lives of individuals. As such, this synthesis summary offers a critical review of two articles that describes the effects of unemployment on the lives of Jamaicans.

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The two articles, Short-and long-term effects of unemployment on fertility Proceedings of the National Academy of Science by Currie et al and Assessing the welfare effects of unemployment benefits using the regression kink design by Landais discuss social issues experienced by Jamaicans as they conduct their daily business operations. The articles have also pointed out a thematic framework of the issues that emerged as the roles of Jamaicans evolved. Additionally, they have provided concise ways in which individuals have approached social issues in different perspectives. The articles further state that the level of satisfaction with life and the psychological wellbeing are likely to influence social behaviour and determine social services. Both authors have identified variables that may forecast psychological wellbeing in Jamaica and other variables that are closely associated with the degree of satisfaction with life.

However, the articles differ at some point. According to the article by Currie et al, he pointed out that the main social issue affecting individuals is experienced in the workplace. For instance, he argued that the information and communication technology has increased the access to information sharing among individuals in developing context thus helping in the achievement of social outcomes like increased levels of education.

On the other hand, the article by Landais Assessing the welfare effects of unemployment benefits using the regression kink design has further demonstrated the mechanisms on how individuals have perceived these issues in psychological wellbeing and satisfaction with life methods outside the workplace. He further built a separate age group of self-rated wellbeing models and examined contributions of each variable to these different models hence concluding that at least 75% of the changeability in self-rated wellbeing in every model is expounded by specific given psychological factors.

In conclusion, this synthesis summary clearly depicts the effects of social issues on individuals and also shows the audience how self-rated wellbeing models are embraced to examine psychological factors.

Expository Essay

Introduction

A social issue is a problem that society has recognized and it may prevent the same community from optimal performance. In Jamaica, unemployment is a social issue that have negatively influenced the daily lives of individuals. In particular, it causes evils deeds such as increased cases of suicidal attempts, quarrels at homes, decline in one's health and mental challenges such as hopelessness and depression (Landais, 2015). Studies indicate that unemployment has decreased the economic growth and development of Jamaica because it is difficult for the government to collect taxes from the unemployed. Principally, the reasons stated above form have negatively affected the well beings of Jamaicans and thus there is need to understand them in details. As such, the essay discusses the impacts of unemployment on the lives of Jamaicans. Also, it informs the audience how its effects hinder Jamaicans from meeting their basic needs on their day to day life.

Body

Unemployment in Jamaica

Unemployment is one of the social issues that affect majority of Jamaicans. It has become a social disaster by creating problems like violence, lowering of individual self-esteem, and crime among the youths. These issues come to play since when a person is in need and cannot get any financial assistance, he may decide to involve himself in an evil act such as robbery and murder of others to satisfy his wants and needs thus becoming a threat to the society. As well, unemployment may cause evil deeds such as increase attempts of suicide, quarrels at homes, and mental health effects. Due to all these, the government has a difficult task to ensure that the employment gap is narrowed by creating employment opportunities the unemployed (Currie, & Schwandt, 2014).

Unemployment has also caused future employment woes among Jamaicans. In fact, the longer an individual is unemployed, the more challenging he or she is unlikely to get out of unemployment track. Besides, the chronic unemployment may be self-perpetuating since the longer one is unemployed, the less he or she may be attractive to the potential employers (Currie, & Schwandt, 2014). Besides, when individuals stay at home too long without being absorbed into the jobs, the effects of community ripples are experienced since individuals are unable to pay their mortgage resulting in foreclosure of homes.

Finally, Jamaicans have been hit by less overall spending because a great number of them are unemployed. This, in turn, hurts the economy leading to a cyclical problem. For example, many companies in Jamaica have suffered from less demand of consumers since most of the people do not have enough money to spend. This situation has forced the companies to lose business and for continuous survival; they have retrenched their employees causing an additional massive unemployment (Landais, 2015). In the same token, every unemployed Jamaican has become qualified for unemployment insurance and this slowly sucks money from the economy than contributing to it hence promoting the country's tax revenues and deficits. The study has also shown that approximately 48% of mortgages drop into foreclosure as a result of unemployment resulting from a rise in bankruptcy rate and a fall in home values.

Conclusion

In summary, as already discussed above, social issues in Jamaica have impacts on every individual within the society. It is, therefore, their role to recognize such issues and come up with appropriate social actions on them. Besides, an issue such as unemployment needs to be immediately addressed by both the government and private sectors for the betterment of the society (Cylus, Glymour, & Avendano, 2015). This can be achieved by creating job opportunities in both informal and formal sectors to combat the high rise of unemployment in Jamaica.

Sentence Outline

Broad Topic: Social Issues

Narrowed Topic: Unemployment in Jamaica

Purpose:To inform Jamaican Government and other Nongovernmental Organizations about the Effects of Unemployment in the Country

Audience:The government and Nongovernmental Organizations

Thesis Statement: As such, the essay discusses the impacts of unemployment on the lives of Jamaicans. Also, it informs the audience how its effects hinder Jamaicans from meeting their basic needs on their day to day life.

Unemployment has caused quarrels at home, violence, and suicidal attempts among the youths who are unemployed in Jamaica (Landais, 2015).

It also causes robbery

Killing of individuals to get away with their property

It lowers individual self-esteem

Many unemployed youths cannot get out of unemployment track because they are less attractive to potential employers (Wulfgramm, 2014).

Unemployment has resulted in less spending of unemployed Jamaicans (Currie, & Schwandt, 2014)

Resulting in a significant decline in the disposable income of the households

Retrenchment of workers

Increase in bankruptcy rate

References

Currie, J., & Schwandt, H. (2014). Short-and long-term effects of unemployment on fertility. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 111(41), 14734-14739.

Cylus, J., Glymour, M. M., & Avendano, M. (2015). Health effects of unemployment benefit program generosity. American journal of public health, 105(2), 317-323.

Griep, Y., Kinnunen, U., Natti, J., De Cuyper, N., Mauno, S., Makikangas, A., & De Witte, H. (2016). The effects of unemployment and perceived job insecurity: a comparison of their association with psychological and somatic complaints, self-rated health and life satisfaction. International archives of occupational and environmental health, 89(1), 147-162.

Kostrzewski, S. P., & Worach-Kardas, H. (2014). Living with long-term unemployment-effects in health and quality of life. Journal of Health Sciences, 4(2), 45-60.

Landais, C. (2015). Assessing the welfare effects of unemployment benefits using the regression kink design. American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, 7(4), 243-78.

Mukoyama, T. (2013). Understanding the welfare effects of unemployment insurance policy in general equilibrium. Journal of Macroeconomics, 38, 347-368.

Tatsiramos, K., & Ours, J. C. (2014). Labor market effects of unemployment insurance design. Journal of Economic Surveys, 28(2), 284-311.

Wulfgramm, M. (2014). Life satisfaction effects of unemployment in Europe: The moderating influence of labour market policy. Journal of European Social Policy, 24(3), 258-272.

Zimmermann, K. F., Biavaschi, C., Eichhorst, W., Giulietti, C., Kendzia, M. J., Muravyev, A., ... & Schmidl, R. (2013). Youth unemployment and vocational training. Foundations and Trends in Microeconomics, 9(1-2), 1-157.