Unemployment

[andrewducker]

There are _bound_ to be sociological studies of unemployement out there. Anyone know of any which dig into the reasons why individuals don't have jobs. I know the information's going to be hard to tease out of them, but I'd love to know what we do know...

Comments

[autopope.livejournal.com]

I know the information's going to be hard to tease out of them

Impossible, I'd say. Because many of them may not know why they don't have jobs -- why their employer went bust or fired them, or why they keep failing at interviews. And among those who do know, there will be a proportion who tell lies (out of embarrassment, or due to cognitive/mental health issues).

To find out why they don't have jobs you'd need to track down former employers or former rejectors-of-employment-applications and get them to tell you. And the state of employment law is such that they've got big incentives for not talking to you, or for lying. (Think they'll tell you they passed over a wo/man on grounds of gender? Or a muslim, because they're racist? Think again.)

[andrewducker]

I agree that it's going to be a morass of lies, unknowns, etc. But that's what sociologists are used to dealing with. You talk to someone, take on that they can't get a job, and that they think "It's all the fault of the Pakis" and mark them down as "unable to get a job on the grounds that they are openly racist"

Or if they say that "It's just impossible to get a job, innit?", you ask them what their job strategy is (in simpler language than that) and discover whether they're actually doing anything, or whether they're so depressed that they've given up trying.

If you can do sociological research on Pacific Islanders, Mexican gang members, prostitues and drug dealers, you can do it on unemployed people.

[nickys.livejournal.com]

There's a study of why unemployment is in the interests of companies in general at http://www.jstor.org/pss/1804018
(summary: if there's full employment then nobody's afraid of being fired)

[andrewducker]

I've never felt there was an actual conspiracy in that area, but it is the reason why I support citizen's income.

[nickys.livejournal.com]

It's more that this is a reason why governments don't bother to try to solve unemployment unless it gets really, really bad.

[autopope.livejournal.com]

Posit that the average employment tenure is 2 years. Let us posit that the average employee takes 2 weeks between jobs, but is otherwise employed full-time.

This corresponds to an unemployment rate of 2 weeks out of every 100, or 2%. Just from slack time between jobs.

We can mess around with the "slack" time and employment tenure, but at a headline unemployment rate of 2% employers begin to find it really hard to fill vacancies; 2% unemployment or less corresponds to de facto full employment.

[communicator.livejournal.com]

Yes, I think this is key. The system is set up to include a certain level of unemployment. As with a game of musical chairs, there may be factors which make it harder for an individal to get a place, but these aren't the reasons some people are left standing - it's that there aren't enough places to go round.

When I was a lecturer I was aware that when I did my best by my students (which of course I did) and they became more employable, all this meant was that they displaced some other poor so-and-so.

[nickys.livejournal.com]

There are reasons why some particular people tend to be unemployed more often than others, but overqualification is a problem, as is becoming too specialised in a field - both of which are problems that affect people who are educated and (probably) prone to working hard.

[nickys.livejournal.com]

... so yes, I agree that it's a numbers game.

[bohemiancoast.livejournal.com]

Well, there's a certain minimum level of unemployment which is just the friction in the system caused by the time it takes to lose and get jobs. They used to reckon that was about 1/2 million in the UK, and about 2m people start a new job each month.

[channelpenguin.livejournal.com]

Tired of working for the minion-herders? ;-)

[andrewducker]

Oh Good Lord, no. Quite enjoying my work at the moment.

Fed up of arguing that there are very few people who just don't want a job, and that the majority of unemployed people have other reasons for not being employed. Would like something to either back me up or change my mind :->

[octopoid-horror.livejournal.com]

I'm certain there were studies done in the 80s about this that I've heard of, that spoke to families that were into their second generation of complete unemployment.

I know anecdotally that it becomes a proud tradition. I've told you about my manager who fell out with her family because she was the only one who worked.

[bohemiancoast.livejournal.com]

We have millions of people who don't work and don't seek work. Only a few of those say 'don't want to work' as their top reason, though quite a lot say 'don't want to work with an x year old child'.

[andrewducker]

Well, exactly. I worked in Easterhouse, I know that deprived areas have multiple generations of unbemployment, and the social problems it causes. But knowing, for instance, that 19% of the people not seeking work are doing so because they have a 3-year-old and nobody to look after them is useful (for instance).

[bohemiancoast.livejournal.com]

DWP has done tons of research on this as you'd expect. All on the internet. Lots of different reasons; but one thing is clear -- if you would like a job, the single thing you can do that is more likely to get you a job than anything else is to look for one.

http://research.dwp.gov.uk/asd/asd5/rrs-index.asp is your starting point.

Edit to mention a term of art -- for what you are looking for the term you need for recent research is 'worklessness' not 'unemployment'.

[andrewducker]

Thank you - I should have remembered that you'd be the perfect person to ask about this!