In the United States, there has been a decrease in unemployment since the great recession ended in 2009. Unemployment rates were just under 5% in 2007 and then skyrocketed up to over 10% in only two years, and with a steady decline from 2009 where in January of 2016 the rate was down to 5.3%. But the reason why the unemployment rate has fallen is not because there are more jobs out there, but because the labor force participants rate has declined by 4.5%. In addition, unemployed people who are "discouraged in their job pursuits" and the people who only work part-time are excluded from the official unemployment rate. Many other similar factors are also calculated but left out of the official unemployment rate, but when all added up together the rate becomes 23.1%, which is close to the rates of the Great Depression in 1932 when unemployment was the highest ever documented in U.S. history. If we then add the people living on welfare benefits the rate
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government has lately made welfare benefits more generous than before, which means that more people give up working even though they could or should be working. This is where America can improve their economy. By not being so generous on welfare benefits the government would force more people that could work to join the U.S. workforce. A good example of people taking advantage of these benefits is the food stamp system. Since the great recession in 2007, the food stamp participants have risen from 27 million to 48 million seven years later in 2014. A few states even have these benefits so generous that they are sometimes greater than the pre-tax salaries they would be making if they had a job. These benefits must always be lower than the minimum wage or salaries in order to make people want to do those jobs. America must also set more laws to encourage people to participate in the U.S. workforce. The manpower using welfare benefits when they could be working is an unused resource (Evans, Stephen T,
government has lately made welfare benefits more generous than before, which means that more people give up working even though they could or should be working. This is where America can improve their economy. By not being so generous on welfare benefits the government would force more people that could work to join the U.S. workforce. A good example of people taking advantage of these benefits is the food stamp system. Since the great recession in 2007, the food stamp participants have risen from 27 million to 48 million seven years later in 2014. A few states even have these benefits so generous that they are sometimes greater than the pre-tax salaries they would be making if they had a job. These benefits must always be lower than the minimum wage or salaries in order to make people want to do those jobs. America must also set more laws to encourage people to participate in the U.S. workforce. The manpower using welfare benefits when they could be working is an unused resource (Evans, Stephen T,