Underemployment

“ Within the maximum financial capacity of the government, we shall initiate and carry out a program to help solve unemployment and underemployment through massive productive and labor-intensive projects calculated to create multiple job opportunities while at the same time increasing the production, productivity and wealth of the land. ”

“ The addition of 80 million people each year to an already overcrowded globe is exacerbating the problems of pollution, desertification, underemployment, epidemics, and famine. Because of their own internal problems and priorities, the industrialized countries devote insufficient resources to deal effectively with the poorer areas of the world, which, at least from the economic point of view, are becoming further marginalized. ”

“ Relieving agricultural underemployment through an expansion of the services sector is not being given serious consideration on the grounds that "no further expansion of this sector can be undertaken at the expense of achieving a high level of productivity in the branches of material production and hence in agriculture, too." ”

“ Notwithstanding the frequency of cases of this sort, it is, we think, clear that a majority of those who, in any given state of trade, come into distress through long-continued unemployment or chronic "under-employment," are—with many individual exceptions—either the less strong or the less fit, the less skilled or the less capable, the less responsible or the less regular in their industry of the wage-earning community. ”

“ There is in regard to unemployment but little difficulty in coming to a sound conclusion. Unemployment, and to a less extent under-employment, is on every ground—humanitarian, social, economic—a curse so great that no reasonable effort should be spared to reduce to a minimum the probability of its occurrence, and to mitigate as far as possible its dire effects when once it has supervened. Many will differ as to how far it is right to go in the provision of measures of alleviation, but that is a difference more in degree than in principle. ”

“ The Unemployment Agent glared at me angrily. "Who cares if it is safe? Of course it isn't! You may be blown to shreds and splinters any wake! But what of that? Is anything safe in modern life? It's all a matter of the degree of risk! And, besides, the salary is high."
"I'm not greedy for a high salary," I remarked.
"Oh, well, if that's the way you feel, of course we can fix you up!" returned the chalk-face, contemptuously. "There's never much demand for low-paying jobs." ”

“ The primary cause of unemployment is want of work, the result of economic forces, but the cure of unemployment, according to Labour, is to be the provision of work by the Government in the teeth of adverse economic conditions. ”

“ The purpose of the Act was to give prompt if only partial replacement of wages to the unemployed, to enable workers 'to tide themselves over, until they get back to their old work or find other employment, without having to resort to relief.' [12] Unemployment benefits provide cash to a newly unemployed worker 'at a time when otherwise he would have nothing to spend,' [13] serving to maintain the recipient at subsistence levels without the necessity of his turning to welfare or private charity. ”

“ But if we shade our eyes from all this dazzle of detail; if we simply ask what has been the main feature, the upshot, the final fruit of the capitalist system, there is no doubt about the answer. The special and solid result of the reign of the employers has been--unemployment. Unemployment not only increasing, but becoming at last the very pivot upon which the whole process turns. ”

“ Being mindful of the suffering that comes with unemployment, that last figure is a matter of particular pride for me. And as our economy has grown, unemployment has dropped to its lowest level since 1979. ”

“ I hear tales of unemployment in the United States of America, but the reports that reach us here on American unemployment are so contradictory that I can build no argument upon them. But, as to the gigantic dimensions of our unemployed problem there can be no doubt. We have 1,400,000 workmen on the unemployed register drawing unemployment pay in one form or another. The annual cost to the nation of feeding its workless population runs to over £100,000,000—almost the figure of the annuity demanded from Germany as a war indemnity. ”

“ Great Britain's experiment in doling out "unemployment pay" was based on expediency, and on the generous hypothesis that men and women, outside of the professional pauper class, would prefer work with wages to wages without work. ”

“ The greatest problem in modern industry as well as the greatest curse to the laboring classes, is unemployment. While unemployment has always existed under all systems of labor, it assumed added significance when the introduction of the wage system threw every worker upon his own resources and made him responsible for the care of himself and his family. ”

“ We proceed now to consider the last section of all, the adult able-bodied man or woman without means, who becomes destitute through not being in employment at wages. We think that it is invidious and unwarranted to assume that such unemployment is, in any particular case, wholly or even mainly the result of any "defect of the citizen character." We have been unable to resist the evidence that unemployment, and even acute distress from unemployment, comes, as a matter of fact, to workmen of excellent skill and character. ”

“ The Minority appear to accept the labour exchange as a test of unemployment—that is to say, if there is no job offering to a man at the labour exchange, it is to be assumed that he cannot get z work. This, of course, involves the assumption that all the jobs offering can be registered at the labour exchange, a thing which is inconceivable. Many thousands of labourers now tide over their times of unemployment for themselves by street selling and other quite legitimate ways of earning a living. ”

“ For example, the September Report of the New York Commissioner of Labor shows that the average percentage of unemployment during the prosperous period between 1902 and 1907, was 16.1 per cent. We shall see later when we endeavor to calculate the amount of our population affected by unemployment, that 16.1 per cent, being derived entirely from trade union reports, does not fully represent the whole, because it is generally admitted that unemployment prevails in much larger proportion in unorganized labor than in organized. ”

“ The scheme must avoid encouraging unemployment, and for this purpose it is essential that the rate of unemployment benefit payable shall be relatively low. It would be fatal to any scheme to offer compensation for unemployment at a rate approximating to that of ordinary wages.
“ 5. For the same reason it is essential to enlist the interest of all those engaged in the insured trades, whether as employers or as workmen, in reducing unemployment, by associating them with the scheme both as regards contribution and management. ”

“ Some Republican leaders actually treat this unemployment insurance as if it’s a form of welfare. They say it discourages folks from looking for work. Well, I’ve met a lot of folks looking for work these past few years, and I can tell you, I haven’t met any Americans who would rather have an unemployment check than a meaningful job that lets you provide for your family. And we all have friends, neighbors, or family members who already knows how hard it is to land a job when five workers are competing for every opening. ”

“ Poor Law Relief—Principles Governing Administration of Relief—Ascertainment of Applicant’s Income—Assistance to Guardians to Carry out Works—Funding of Cost of Relief—Help to Poorer Metropolitan Unions—Assistance to Guardians to Raise Loans.
Unemployment is to-day a burning question; it will always be in industry an outstanding difficulty. ”

“ Unemployment is a social problem and not merely an individual problem.
§ 15. #Maladjustment of wages causing unemployment.# It seems highly probable that the artificial maintenance of a wage above the competitive, or value-equilibrium, rate of the individual, whether this be done by sympathy, by custom, or by the action of trade unions, must cause some maladjustment of workers in relation to available jobs and thus increase unemployment. To doubt this is again to maintain the absolute inelasticity of the demand for labor with changes in its price. ”

“ This is the result of two circumstances—first, the commodity-theory of labour, according to which labour-power is regarded as a measureable marketable affair, subject to the law of supply and demand and separate from the personality of the worker; and second, that reserve of labour commonly called unemployment, the existence of which tends to moderate the fluctuations of the labour market. It is in the interests of capital that there should be a permanent margin of unemployment in order that the price of labour should not become excessive at any time by reason of its scarcity. ”

“ Where persons were entitled to unemployment benefit from the Trade Unions they should receive it and in addition be paid unemployment benefit under the Unemployment Insurance Acts; the rate of benefit, under those Acts, to be increased to a sum to be fixed in regard to the prevailing cost of living. Unemployed persons who did not receive benefit under the Acts, and those who had received it, but had run out of it, should be paid maintenance up to a total sum per week fixed in due relation to the cost of living. Trade Unions paying unemployment benefit were to receive a Government subsidy. ”

“ If low productivity labour has a stronger position in the labour market, then the risk of unemployment is spread more evenly, and trend-setting high productivity labour will be cautious about wage claims. ”

“ Such temporary unemployment is probably unavoidable in a period of rapid change. The unemployed worker is a victim of conditions beyond his control. He should be enabled to maintain a reasonable standard of living for himself and his family.
The most serious difficulty in the path of reconversion and expansion is the establishment of a fair wage structure.
The ability of labor and management to work together, and the wage and price policies which they develop, are social and economic issues of first importance. ”

“ Therefore, let us keep our minds on two or three simple essential facts in connection with this problem of unemployment. It is true that while business and industry are definitely better our relief rolls are still too large. However, for the first time in five years the relief rolls have declined instead of increased during the winter months. They are still declining. The simple fact is that many millions more people have private work today than two years ago today or one year ago today and every day that passes offers more chances to work for those who want to work. ”

“ Our analysis will allow a stronger conclusion. From the 1950s till the beginning of the 1990s the common view among economists and policy makers tended to be that the unemployment in the trade-off was “general” unemployment. This is not quite true for all economists, but many made this simplifying assumption. Nowadays we tend to link unemployment to lowly productive labour. For us it may be obvious, but compared to the earlier view of many it is a change of perspective that the once-thought-to-be “general” unemployment now turns up as a rather specific type. ”

“ Generous as arrangements can be, people fundamentally still react to incentives. Welfare state arrangements tend to reduce the base of the economy of those participating in the workforce and they increase the burden on those. The welfare state also tends to generate more unemployment and inflation. While unemployment would ‘traditionally’ cause people to lose their income and thus to be more cautious with their wage demands, in the welfare state they receive an unemployment benefit and may continue tot insist on high wages. ”

“ The foregoing analysis of the causes of unemployment shows that they are deep-seated in the nature of modern industry, and that it would be unjust to the workingman to attribute them in any large measure to his incapacity or indisposition to labor. The care of the unemployable must of course be undertaken by society, and such persons prevented as far as possible from depressing the wages of competent labor by their competition. ”

“ But what we may call the normal unemployment in modern industry, which amounts to 2-21⁄2 per cent of the labor force, cannot be overcome by direct methods. The remedy for this lies “in a better organization of employers and employes, more steady expansion of trade, and greater stability of industry and of legislation affecting industry. These are not problems directly of unemployment, but rather of taxation, currency, monopoly, immigration, over-production, and technical advances in industry. ”

“ Unemployment The immediate government relief of the unemployed by the extension of all useful public works. All persons employed on such works to be engaged directly by the government under a workday of not more than eight hours and not less than the prevailing union wages. The government also to establish employment bureaus; to lend money to States and municipalities without interest for the purpose of carrying on public works, and to take such other measures within its power as will lessen the widespread misery of the workers caused by the misrule of the capitalist class. ”

“ Economic theories about unemployment are themselves part of the information sets in society. An adequate description of unemployment not only requires a statement of taxes, social security and e.g. legal minimum wage, and their technical interaction, but also a statement of people’s perceptions, of the theories in the journals, and of what journalists and politicians make of these. ”