Psychological Impacts Of Unemployment In The United States

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Unemployment is usually analyzed at an economic aspect for example the impacts of unemployment on a country’s economy. However this article talks about the psychological impacts of unemployment. Traditionally not much emphasis is put on psychological aspects in economy, but it poses significant threats and so should be studied more extensively. In the article it says that the United States saw its unemployment rate rise to a high point in 2009 and will worsen if left unaided. The current issue is that attention needs to be given to the psychological effects of unemployment. Unemployment brings along with it many negative impacts, therefore the unemployed need support and help from the society and government in order to come out of unemployment. …show more content…
The household of an unemployed person will experience a decline in health. Parents who are unemployed tend to become negative and careless about parenting and this directly affects the children. Fathers who are unemployed endure a blow to their self esteem and feel inadequate in the eyes of the world which might cause him to turn violent. Child abuse is a significant risk. Unemployment fills a home with negativity; the children will be affected the most. Children will tend to become worse tempered, impatient and develop other negative traits. It can be said that it is a domino effect. Unemployed parents will yield children who have negative traits which will make it harder for them to find employment.
The negative impacts of unemployment extend out of the household and to the community. People who are unemployed may suffer from poverty as well. Poor neighborhoods with low cost houses, poor security, and lack of recreation and so on contribute to the negativity in the lives of the unemployed. Living in poor neighborhoods makes it hard for them to mix with other communities which in turn are a hindrance for them to return to work. One of the groups of people affected by unemployment is the ones who were not fired. These people will suffer from anxiety, constantly worrying that they might be next to get lay
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Lower incomes workers are psychological affected the most when they get lay off and therefore are more vulnerable. Income inequality will create an environment that magnifies the negative psychological impacts of unemployment because the status difference between the rich and the poor are too obvious and lowers their self esteem even more. The intensity of the impact of unemployment is greatly determined by how important the job was to the person. A father who depends on his job to support his family will feel more impact and strain at being unemployed, whereas people who have savings or assets to sustain themselves feel less distress. Unemployment is unavoidable, the best we can do is study what causes unemployment as well as the consequences of unemployment on an individual and find solutions to drive them back into employment. By going at it from a psychological aspect, efforts can be aimed at directly helping the unemployed instead of the conventional indirect approach of influencing the

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