Introduction.

Unemployment refers to a situation where people with a working age are unable to get jobs even after expressing their willingness to access a full-time job. This is evident in most developing countries, where even those with higher levels of education are still unemployed. There are also inadequate job opportunities due to the ever rising population of qualified personnel, which the government is unable to meet their employment needs with the few available job opportunities in most countries. Sociological theories of unemployment, the validity of unemployment as a social problem its consequences and society response to this problem Will be discussed.

Unemployment has for years been a major social problem in the world. Evaluation of unemployment rates in most societies has revealed that most people are unemployed and even those employed are underemployed. Therefore the governments together with other private and public agencies need to address the issue of unemployment as soon as possible since unemployment has successfully proved to be the origin of both social evils and socio-economic problems in most societies.

Statement  problem

Unemployment has been proven a major social problem as evidence by conflict theorists. The conflict theorists see unemployment as those in power taking advantage of the unemployed, powerless and desperate who lack income and opt for jobs which are below their capabilities and pay less.  Since those in power take up further education to improve on their skills  resulting in globalization, feminism, and use of technology which increased the unemployment rates. Also, The conflict theorists criticize the government perspective that, unemployment is caused by inadequate training by individuals, they suggest that, through education is vital as it equips one with qualities to suit different careers and to lead a successful life,  it also creates qualified people for jobs that are not currently in place. Therefore, society as a whole should not term this as an individual’s fault but assess some other factor that might be contributing to the growth of this social problem.

scope

Focusing on the unemployment rates in most societies, different related issues will be addressed. These issues include  the impact of unemployment on the development and social change, why this social problem need swift interventions and the effects of these interventions on socio-economic development. it also analyzes the techniques that should be put in place to eradicate this problem and even be used by the government, public, private agencies, and social groups to come up with the most appropriate way of doing away with this problem. By coming up with ideas of providing employment or by offering some funds to unemployed people so that to instill in them the power of self-employment.

Though unemployment level can be eradicated from society, economists argue that unemployment can only be eliminated to some levels.  The remaining natural l levels of unemployment inflicts great impacts on the country, and individuals resulting to poverty, social stratification crime, low confidence, low self-esteem, increased illiteracy level, stigmatization, low standards of living and overdependence.

Impacts of unemployment on individuals

The long-term unemployment of individual put an individual to extreme pressure to struggle in any way to accumulate income that is required by him and the family to meet their social need. The intense demand for capital results to an erosion of morals and skills where the individual is forced to get involved in a crime such as theft for him or her to cater for their social needs.

Also, unemployment also lowers the living standards of individuals whereby the individual is unable to access better housing, better natural resources such as water, quality education and quality health care due to low-income levels brought about by unemployment.

Apart from unemployment resulting in the low living standard of individuals, it has also resulted in an increase in illiteracy level in two way. One,   since low-income levels characterize unemployment, children from families where both parents are unemployed are deprived of quality education, since their parent can’t afford the quality education offered in the most private academic institution, hence this increases the illiteracy levels. Secondly, unemployment has altered most parents’ morale, and most of them are discouraged from taking their children to school because even those with degrees are still not employed and those who have secured a place in the employment sector are underemployed.

Impacts of unemployment on society

Even though unemployment impacts can’t be measured, it greatly affects the society in some way.  It brings about social stratification in the community whereby those in power and has excellent income levels look down upon the unprivileged groups.  This erodes the unprivileged group’s confidence and self-esteem which results in stigmatization and social isolation of the unprivileged groups which induce suicidal thoughts in their brains.

Impacts of unemployment to the country.

The over dependent levels in most developing countries such as Kenya as a result of unemployment has led to poverty since the amount of money that could be invested in some economic sector to yield better results are given to the unprivileged group for personal consumption. This results in high poverty levels. Besides, the high taxes collected from businesses, companies, and organization make this sector lag behind or even collapse because what they are to save is collected as tax to meet the ever rising needs of the unemployed in the country resulting to increased poverty levels.

The increased unemployment cases have raised concern to social science expert, who are working toward reducing or controlling this social problem as a result of increased disparities and social stratification in the societies which creates imbalance societies.  Durkheim and Marx’s Weber have contributed much about unemployment in the conflict theories. These theorists even go ahead to criticize the government perspective,  they state that,  even those with skills are still unemployed because some of them have qualities or expertise that are not necessary for the current job market. Therefore the government stops assuming that unemployment is the individual faults and put in more effort in trying to establish some businesses and organization that will offer more job opportunities.

Due to the increased impacts of this social problem the government, society and families have come together to invent and realize techniques that have the potential to deal with the issue of unemployment.  For instance, the government along with financial institutions has offered credit to the small enterprise which has enhanced self-employment hence reduced the unemployment rate in the society, therefore, minimizing the social evils and socio-economic problems resulting from unemployment. Also, the government has also partnered with other countries which establish industries in their countries which further provide more job opportunities, therefore, eradicating unemployment. Thus for a state to eliminate unemployment it has to collaborate with its other countries and society.