Unemployment Rate in Different States Term Paper

Unemployment Rate in Different States - Term Paper Example Unemployment Rate in Different States At first glance it is very easy to blame the 2008 economic downturn on the likes of people like Bernard Madoff and Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan. A lot of people even speak of the availability of â€Å"subprime† mortgages given to those who might not otherwise qualify for them. The housing bubble then burst, putting millions out of work in the domino theory. Another reason given is the United States fighting the Global War on Terror in two separate countries. Pouring money into two countries for what was deemed unwinnable conflicts struck many as a recipe for economic disaster. Whatever the reason, the entire planet began to suffer the effects of a â€Å"downturn† in 2008 that it has yet to recover from. Why and what the differences are between the different states are covered on the following pages. II. Worldwide Impact People cannot even agree what to call this crisis. The official name is a â€Å"downturn†, while there are many people, economists in cluded, who call it a recession. There are even those who hint of the word depression, even though politicians and economists alike vehemently deny the nation is in a depression. The memories of bread lines and political losses of 1929 are way too fresh in people’s minds for that term to probably ever be used again. Yet whatever one chooses to call it, this crisis seems to be unlike any felt since the end of World War II. As the table below shows, the economy of several selected countries has suffered greatly. Even those like China which did not go into the negative still endured losses of growth. GDP GROWTH 2008-09 SELECTED REGIONS (WTO) (PERCENTAGE) COUNTRY 2008 2009 USA 0.1 -2.8 EUROPEAN UNION 0.5 -4.0 CHINA 9.6 9.1 JAPAN -1.2 -6.3 DEVELOPED COUNTRIES AVG 0.2 -3.7 DEVELOPING COUNTRIES AVG 5.7 2.1 So it is evident a worldwide financial crisis cannot be blamed on any one man. Also since it has been well touted that in the rest of the world, mortgages are difficult if not imp ossible to obtain, the housing crisis is not the problem elsewhere. Also since many countries (such as China, Russia, and India) have historically always spent a large portion of their national budget on what Americans term defense, that should not pose a problem internationally either. But this paper is on unemployment in the United States and will therefore be the basis of the remainder of this paper. This introductory piece was just to show that this country has plenty of company in its misery and a Herculean effort will be required to make us feel safer monetarily. Yet it is also true that diversity plays a key in a region’s growth or failure. For instance, the WTO points out that most of the major powers in the European Union (like Germany and France) actually saw growth during the period listed in the table but statistically the entire Union endured losses, largely due to such countries as Ireland and Greece. The same can be said for the fifty states. While the United S tate’s unemployment rate rose five percentage points from 2007-10 (4.6 to 9.6 per cent), certain states underwent either far less rise in unemployment. For example, between 2008 and 2009, data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics shows some states such as New York, Michigan, and California shot to double digit figures. It is interesting to note that most of the jumps in unemployment were in the so-called industrialized states, while

Employee relations in the public sector have generally been conflict Essay

Employee relations in the public sector have generally been conflict ridden for some time. Discuss the reasons for this and what - Essay Example Privatization, organizational changes, and subsequent withdrawal of trade unions from the public sector further complicate the situation. Conflicts between employees and public sector employers reflect the growing complexity of their relations and reduced role of the trade union support in collective bargaining issues. Given that relatively little is known about public sector employee behaviors and their decisions, a deeper analysis of their conflicts and situations needs to be performed. The development of partnerships between public sector employees and trade unions, and the use of integrative management approaches to organizational change must guarantee active involvement of the public sector employees in the processes and decisions that influence the terms and conditions of their workplace performance. Employment relations in the public sector: Conflicts and underlying reasons That employee relations in public sector have been conflict ridden for some time is a well-known fact. C averley, Cunningham and Mitchell (2006) are correct in that any conflicts in employee relations illustrate and expose a wide range of difficulties, many of which reflect employee resistance to organizational and other changes in work. Such resistance is relevant for all public sector employees, irrespective of the issues and conflicts that affect their performance. The latter may range from a disagreement over benefits and pays to the issues in scheduling in the workplace (Caverley, Cunningham & Mitchell 2006). In these situations, different parties take different positions and argue, make concessions, and reach a consensus (Caverley, Cunningham & Mitchell 2006). Unfortunately, public sector employees often fail to achieve such an agreement with their employees and external parties. For this reason, conflicts are becoming a definitive feature of employment relations in the public sector. The reasons of such conflicts are numerous and varied. Objectively, that the relations between e mployees and employers in the public sector are characterized by a number of peculiar features. First, the state is no longer a silent, neutral representative of the public employee interest but exemplifies a self-interested party in the employee relations field (Beaumont 1992). Second, the state is no longer a mechanism of reacting to the civil society pressures but an autonomous organism, which becomes even more autonomous during the major economic shakes (Beaumont 1992). Third, the growing autonomy of the state is directly associated with increased probability of inter-role conflicts in the public sector, when employees and employers either fail to understand or are not willing to accept the distribution of functions proposed by the state (Beaumont 1992). Ultimately, these are governments’ macroeconomic decisions and policies that usually lead to the growing discontent in public sector employees – therefore, political environment has far-reaching implications for th e quality and stability of industrial relationships in the public sector (Beaumont 1992). In the 20th century, the state in Great Britain used to be the principal provider and, simultaneously, the key employer in numerous public sectors, including health, education, and social services (Prowse & Prowse 2007). As a result, the state was also the key player in the development of