Long-term Unemployment and the Risk of Social Exclusion

Beatrice brossier The social realities of long term unemployment: residence Malherbe’s, a case study Literature Review Work Work is very fundament for every human being in the world today. The history of work is that it has started well before the pre industrial societies. And according to dupre and gagnier the history of work has started with god’s words who said that work was “toil and trouble”. They also emphasized on Adam smith a great man who said that “work is the real prize of everything” as we need work to achieve in life. That is ever since man lived on earth, he has been working hard to survive.

During earlier times where life was still simple, man toiled the land in order to have food and shelter. That is their work. Nowadays, with the introduction of money, man works hard in various ways in order to make a living so they could have food and shelter. Work is important because it is what man needs to do to survive. But always remember that man is not created to work all his life. Work is just the means to survive but not the reason to. And also work is the fundamental rights written in the universal rights of declarations.

In every country everyone who has reached majority have the right to work. Is this right, an illusion or a reality. As according to Indian law institute, in India, the duty of work is provided upon the decision of the state. And no one in this democratic country is doing anything and no one is considering this law. And so that’s why in many countries where this right is not respected we have a high rate of unemployed people. The topic of unemployment and its growing rate is widely studied everywhere in the world and among academics.

Society tend to focus on the obvious effects of unemployment on an individual such as the financial loss of income and the impact which high levels of unemployment have on government resource. Unemployment comes from different causes. In general can be manifested into five types: frictional, cyclical, voluntary, structural and institutional. Frictional Unemployment refers to the period between job transitions. People are regarded as unemployed while they are attempting to find a new job. Cyclical Unemployment occurs during recessions of economic cycle.

As a matter of fact, it is not surprising that during economic recessions, the demand for goods and services falls. Employers may respond by reducing the labors. When supply of labors is greater than the demand, unemployment results. However, it is believed that such unemployment will disappear the economy recovers. Voluntary Unemployment Under the economists’ view, people tend to participate in workforce. Unemployment is usually regarded as involuntary. However, there are scenarios that people choose not to work. Voluntary unemployment describes such phenomenon.

It is functionally another type of frictional unemployment. It happens when people are not able to find employment that matches their expectations. Structural unemployment occurs when the skills, experience, and education of workers do not match job openings (Goodwin 27). Structural unemployment is a form of frictional unemployment, but it usually lasts longer. It may encourage voluntary unemployment. Institutional unemployment explains how interference in the labor market can create unemployment. The government is the most common instigator of institutional unemployment.

Governments can set taxes, create price floors or price ceilings, and indirectly support other factors of institutional unemployment such as labor unions. According to the us labor statistics (2016) The Great Recession led not only to much higher numbers of unemployed workers, but also, and more dramatically, too much longer spells of unemployment for the unemployed. And also they have found that the recession was particularly harsh for two age groups of unemployed workers: those aged 25-44 and those 55 or older. In 2016, these two groups remained.

High unemployment rate in a country leads to social and economic problems in the community as a whole. Social problems cause’s social ills and shows effect on individuals financially and psychologically. Individuals cannot meet their financial obligations on time and getting high stress which leads to problems like ill-health, premature death, suicides etc. (Clark, 2003) Moreover, the effects of unemployment are social, too, not just economic. Frequently, crime rates rise as people are unable to meet their needs through work.

Divorce rates often rise because people cannot solve their financial problems. The rate of homelessness rises, as do the rates for mental and physical illness. Homes are foreclosed upon or abandoned, and neighborhoods deteriorate as a result. When there is high unemployment, people pay less in income taxes and also pay less in sales taxes because they purchase fewer goods and services. According to fritz (2006) there are several causes for unemployment and it depends on prevailing conditions of economy and also on individual’s perception.

The following are some of the causes for unemployment. Change in technology is one of the serious cause for unemployment. As the technology changes employers search for people with latest technical caliber. They look for better substitutes. Job cuts due to change in the technology brings unemployment problem in the society. Recession is prime factor for unemployment in most of the countries. Because of the financial crisis in one country can affect the other countries economy due to globalization. Changes in the global Markets are another important factor.

Any country economy adversely affect when its exports are down the line due to changes in global markets, and increase in price. With this production suffers and companies unable to pay on time and this increases the rate of unemployment. Job dissatisfaction by many employees is another cause, this happens when less attention given by the employers on the performance of employee. This leads to lack of interest and desire to work and unemployment becomes inevitable, as employees deliberately loose their jobs.

And this has led to long term unemployment that is its long-term jobless rate, or the proportion of the group’s labor force total that has been unemployed for 27 weeks or more According to the European market policies (2016) Long-term unemployment remains at very high levels in all countries that experienced a sovereign debt crisis as well as in some other South and Southeast European countries with Long term unemployment rates above 10% in Greece, Spain and Croatia and above 5% in Slovakia, Portugal, Cyprus, Italy, Bulgaria and Ireland.

In most of these countries, long-term unemployment affects the majority of jobseekers And across all the world, all categories, people 55-64 had the highest unemployment rates and the longest durations of unemployment. Data on long-term unemployment are often collected in household labour force surveys. Some countries obtain the data from administrative records, such as those of employment exchanges or unemployment insurance schemes In many other studies which have been conducted to show how long term unemployment causes the rejection and disruption in the society.

For Daniel s (2015) unemployment has been shown to have detrimental effects on the physical, psychological and emotional health of unemployed men and women living in the US. The study was made by this student to show the psychological impact of the long term middle aged group who has been involuntarily terminated from their unemployment. But for Mary Conroy (2010) the findings of her research are relevant to the wider study of financial effects of unemployment as they are interrelated and highlight the personal impact which long term unemployment has on an individual.

The importance of society to understand the effects of unemployment on the individual are crucial so that those who are not personally affected by unemployment understand and appreciate the consequences of it on the individual. For Fryer (1986) who developed the agency restriction model to explain the deterioration in well-being as a result of unemployment. Fryer found that it was the loss of income that impacted on an individual most negatively as a result of long term unemployment.

He points out that money allows people to have control on their lives and provides them with experiences, roles, and a means of socializing, which are essential for developing and maintaining self-esteem and identity. The loss of financial income limits an individual’s autonomy which makes it very difficult to attain and plan for a satisfying lifestyle which is a prerequisite for the development and maintenance of a person’s well-being In fact, only in the middle aged group that did the majority feel that jobs should be a guaranteed right.

Perhaps it was they who could feel the artificiality of mandatory retirement policies and were able to directly attribute their joblessness to this visible obstacle to work. By personalizing the job rejections, many workers hold themselves blameworthy for their joblessness and do not see the direct link between their jobless condition and deliberate policy decisions that limit job availability. For urban institute they have shown that the long-term unemployed tend to be quite different from workers currently in the job market along such dimensions as education and family composition, but less different in terms of industry and occupation.

The long-term unemployed also bear many similarities to discouraged workers and the newly unemployed. This suggests that solutions that remove barriers to reemployment for the long-term unemployed will also be beneficial for other workers facing some degree of labor market distress. The two main theorist which talk about this problem in society are the functionalist and conflict perspective. For functionalist they believe that unemployment serves as a purpose in our society. Unemployment creates so much misery and further increases the problem of stratification.

Those in the underprivileged class have to rely on government handouts, which only further poverty as those people struggle to make end meet. It also maintains that there will be always be someone to take the menial jobs that others don’t want. We need the divisions to make sure there are people to cover all types of place in society. For the conflict theory, unemployment as more evidence of those in a powerful or privileged position taking advantage of others. Power is the emphasis is an employment situation while employed you have a certain amount of power both over your work and your own life.

This also creates class differentiation, and also they also advance that when you are unemployed you become powerless and so you have to wait for the government to give you an income, whereas those who have money can wait for a job and can continue with further education to get a better job. First and foremost, unemployment is a major problem in Mauritius. The number of unemployed as well as labour force climbed by 5, 900 and 4, 800 respectively, showing a significant improvement in the number of employed people over the second quarter of 2013 , according to data released on Statistics Mauritius.

Those unemployed comprised 19, 900 males and 24, 600 females, and approximately 18, 800 of them were aged below 25 years. A majority of 69% of the unemployed males were single while 64% of the unemployed females were ever married. Long term unemployment studies is very quiet limited when concerning the long term unemployed as the main recent statistics is 24. 8% and it was conducted in 2012. It was done in different household of the island. It was conducted by the World Bank. Here is a line bar showing the rate of unemployment in Mauritius.

And in this line bar it show is the standard definition of unemployed persons is those individuals without work, seeking work in a recent past period, and currently available for work, including people who have lost their jobs or who have voluntarily left work. Persons who did not look for work but have an arrangements for a future job are also counted as unemployed. Some unemployment is unavoidable. At any time some workers are temporarily unemployed between jobs as employers look for the right workers and workers search for better jobs.

It is the labour force or the economically active portion of the population that serves as the base for this indicator, not the total population. And according to one of the syndicate of Malherbe, middle aged group is one of the most affected and also among youth also. But for her opinion, many program has been organised to help the youth but not for the middle aged group. So that’s why they have started with the program of helping each other. For example ‘cuisine pour tous’ in collaboration with foundation duval, it help the poor people and the unemployed.

And also helping them to find a work And this affect many residential area. In Malherbe, a residential area of Curepipe unemployment is one of the major problem in the town. The population Malherbe’s contains more than 11,000 residents. Comparative to other regions of Curepipe Malherbe’s is one of the regions most affected by poverty and other scourges. Like in floreal where people live in a better living conditions. In Malherbe’s half of the people are unemployed that is they have no basic salary nor can do anything for their family.

So what they do they fall in a cycle where they can’t sort out? And it affect not only the family but also the community where they live. And according malini seewocksing “the unemployment rate in Curepipe is very serious” According to a report entitled ‘Statistics of registered job seekers’ by gender, age, qualification, length of registration occupation, group, district locality as at end June 2013 the Plaines Wilhelm’s would be to date 3518 unemployed. 2299 or 1219 men against women. Plaines Wilhelm’s are found to be one of the most mine-affected districts.

And according to Mrs Seewocksing the unemployment rate is a very serious case in Curepipe. And she also suggest several reform to find solution to this serious problem According to the officer in charge of the social security service, people who are long term unemployed, received nothing from the social security unless they are physically or have a mentally ill. There is about 2 organisation in Mauritius that provides a small pension to the unemployed for example the NEF programme and the back to work.

But the main problem with those organization is that they provide onlive money to men or women who are married if they are single they don’t get any allocations. That’s why people fall into serious flaws of the society such as poverty etc…. The primary aim of this chapter was to review the literature relating to long term unemployment and its consequences. However, the loss of income may result in strikingly similar social, emotional responses since the recourses available to endure unemployment are limited and the data in Mauritius are very limited when concerning the long term unemployed.

So that’s why I want to undertake this research to show the social realities of the long term unemployed in the residential area of Malherbe in Curepipe Reference changing work and employment institutions in mauritius: challenges for workers, companies and education and training institutions Stephanie Blandine Emilien-November 2014 4 The Impact of Unemployment on Young, Middle-aged and Aged Workers-Hooper Briar. November 1980 The psychological impact of long-term unemployment in mature-aged men: volunteer work as a moderating variable- Ming. Yeu=1999

Consequences of Long-Term Unemployment-Austin Nichols & all-2013 A Qualitative Study of the Psychological Impact of Unemployment on Individuals. Marie Conroy Pia Pettersson “Does unemployment contribute to a poor self-esteem, and does social support, coping and perceived control have any effect during unemployment? ” 2012 Labour Force, Employment and Unemployment: HRDC ANNUAL REPORT 2010-2012 – Republic of Mauritius Who Are the Long-Term Unemployed? – Josh Mitchell Unemployment and Poverty: Greece and Other (Post-)Programme Countries:

EMPLOYMENT AND SOCIAL AFFAIRS

Cultures of Long term unemployment in the new west Long-term Unemployment and the Risk of Social Exclusion among Young People in Europe: Recommendations for Activation Policies: Thomas Kieselbach & Ute Traiser University of Bremen, Institute for Psychology of Work, Unemployment and Health The Composition of Long-term Unemployment Is Changing toward Older Workers: Alexander Monge-Naranjo and Faisal Sohail“types and theories of unemployment” fritz (2006) International labour of statistics