Unemployment

**Essential Question**
toc What does it mean to be unemployed in America?

**Challenge**
To increase education of the public about the difficulties of being unemployed within America.

**Guiding Questions**
1. Why is it important to educate the common person about unemployment? 2. How does your education predict your employment? 3. What is the current unemployment rate? 4. What is being done to stop unemployment? 5. How/ Why has the unemployment rate increased in the past decade? 6. What factors impact the unemployment rate?

**Guiding Activities**

 * Watch documentaries
 * Look up articles
 * Find reliable statistics
 * Send out a survey
 * __@http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/GF3N6N9 __



**Guiding Resources**
The statistic researched, recorded and reported by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistic was updated in August turning into 9.1%. The unemployment rates for adult men (8.9%), adult women (8.0%, teenagers (25.3%). The employment rate increased to 153.6 million in August. The number persons employed part time for economic reasons rose from 8.4 million to 8.8 million in August. These individuals were working part time because they were unable to find a full-time job.
 * http://www.bls.gov/news.release/empsit.nr0.htm (Cassidy) **

**http://www.csmonitor.com/Business/2011/0902/Unemployment-Inc.-Six-reasons-why-America-can-t-create-jobs (Olivia)** This article explains why America cannot create jobs, and why there are unemployed people. First, the US job market is rebounding after a financial crisis and we are in the middle of recovery. This is similar to what happened after the Great Depression. Also, jobs now are more competitive and emoployers are looking for more skilled workers. The economy now also needs the wealthy to spend their money and increase consumer spending to boost the economy and produce jobs, but the wealthy are the least likely to spend their money. America also has chinese competitors who underprice products. Lastly, the formation of new companies has declined. This is important becuase this creates new businesses which provide new employees.

http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=18552 **(Olivia)**

The article explains about how there is no economic recovery unemployed people in America. The recovery is now starting up again for the job market. But, the unemployment rate (people working part-time or not at all, is now 16.9%. More companies are lowering hourly wages. The article further explains how in Obama's presidency, the elite is in power over the working class and are lowering wages, working conditions, benefits, and living standards. Also, there are examples of companies and people about the unemployment rate.

**http://www.english.illinois.edu/maps/depression/about.htm (Jordan)** The Great Depression
 * Started in 1929
 * Lasted until 1939 (start of WWII)
 * From 1929-1932, stock kept dropping until it went down 20%
 * Many people who were stock holders lost a lot
 * The banks lost a lot because they were invested in themselves
 * By 1933, almost half of the banks in the US failed
 * People stopped spending money because they either didn’t have faith in the economy or the didn’t have the money to spend
 * This created a downward spiral that went out of control
 * Unemployment skyrocketed (between 25%-30%)
 * Production dropped to 54% of what it was in 1929
 * After WWI the US was the main fanatical lender to Europe so this depression spread to there too
 * This lead to Roosevelt being elected in 1932 who tried to intervene in the economic depression but with little success
 * When WWII broke out in Europe, there was still 15% unemployment in the US
 * Then other countries needed supplies and everyone got jobs in factories
 * For the first time, women were mass working in factories after the men went to the was in 1941
 * Before the depression, governments never got involved in economics, but after they always get involved

**Newsweek Magazine Info-graphic"** **(Sam)** __MGMT Design, Streib Lauren. “Workforce, U.S.A.” //NewsWeek// 25 July 2011: 27. Print. The article is an “infographic” on companies that are employing the most people in America. The article is useful mostly because it states a current unemployment rate of 9.2%. in addition it shows where the most employed state are in America out of all fifty.__ -This page in the Newsweek magazine is an infographic of the companies in America that employ the most people. It shows what state and the number of people. The main importance is that it states a current unemployment rate in the subtitle "Even with unemployment up to 9.2 percent, some companies are still humming."

**What Does It Mean To Be Long- Term Unemployed Stories (Cassidy)** media type="file" key="What Does It Mean To Be Long-Term Unemployed_ Stories from This Week.mp3" width="240" height="20" People are trying to stay positive as they are unemployed and wonder every night if they'll even have a roof above their head. One woman says that even in this economy people are still being selective over the jobs that they will try to get an interview for. She believes they will start to realize that being selective is only hurting them once they don't have a place to sleep or are unable to pay their bills. Another man says that he has been unemployed for about two years now after having 18 years of great experience at a prominent university, college degree, and he claims it basically all doesn't matter to current employers. All of the people who were interviewed are trying to just make it by taking minimum wage jobs, but they still can't figure out what is worse: being unemployed or being called in for an interview for a job position that they then decided to take away because of financial reasons.

__**About Obama's Speech 9/8**__
**http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5iJZyOMjaUW5T1FF_DyULa_fmn8qw?docId=8ceb9b5ad0e34dd3b7ee8cd87fbc9264 (Jordan)**
 * Obama has a $447 billion plan for job stimulation
 * It should put hundreds of thousands of people back in work in the next year
 * Predictions for this bill is the economy will increase by 2% and unemployment will decrease by 1%
 * Social Security tax cut for workers will be deepened and extended to small businesses
 * This will lower people’s social security tax from 6.2% to 4.2%
 * After another year, if all is going well, Obama will lower it to 3.1%
 * If more people get more money, then there will be more spending
 * Also, large tax cuts can save people up to $3,300 a year
 * There are even more tax cuts for small businesses (this includes 98% of businesses in the US)
 * Another job stimulation part of this bill is companies will get $4,000 in tax cuts if they hire a person who has been unemployed for more than 6 months
 * There are many more tax cuts and job stimulation parts of this bill as well
 * There is a lot of positive feedback about this bill and many people think it will make a very big difference in just one year

**http://blog.heritage.org/2011/09/01/labor-day-2011-slideshow-of-unemployment-and-joblessness/ (Sam)** - This website has a series of graphs that give out statistics on different aspects of unemployment. - One of the graphs it describes that the labor participation rate dropped 4.8% from 2004 to 2011.- Another graph shows the percent of people that got laid off in the past three years which was 12.4%. **http://web.ebscohost.com/ehost/detail?vid=4&hid=12&sid=b1a169b6-fa15-449b-b49e-53428f8c0f72%40sessionmgr15&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZQ%3d%3d#db=lfh&AN=11925865 (Sam)** - The website is a string of paragraphs that discuss the effects on economy and unemployment. - Half or the unemployment rate is teenagers. - 5.4% out of the 9.2% of people unemployed are unemployed because they gave up looking for one because they simply lost hope in being hired by a new business.

**http://www.insyte-consulting.com/InTheNews/Editorials/USEducationCrisisHurtsJobCompetition (Cassidy)** This website discusses some qualifications that are no common in 2011 to get a job. These qualifications include computer or other technological skills, and great knowledge of a subject that one would pursue in life (better education/college degree's)

Graphs
Website: [|Unemployment in the U.S.]

Website: [|Unemployment in the U.S. 2010-2011] Website: http://www.businessinsider.com/gap-between-unemployment-among-educated-and-those-not-educate-2011-2