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Josh Chenlee
Cindy Rogers
English 12
13 January 2015
Assignment 8 Research Paper
Unemployment is one of the biggest issues facing America right now. Unemployment
affects everyone as well as the economy. Unemployment has become a major issue in America
and it has brought a lot of attention to which jobs are sustainable and which jobs need to be
reevaluated. There are many factors that affect unemployment such as economic conditions,
global competition, education, automation, and demographics. These factors affect how jobs are
created and who gets employed in these jobs.
The unemployment rate is an ever changing percentage and has been moving up and
down rapidly over the past few years. From December 2007 to June 2014 the unemployment rate
has increased 1.1%. This might not seem like a huge difference but in the grand scheme of the
American population it makes a significant impact. The unemployment rate has recently
decreased from 5.8% in November 2014 to 5.6% in December 2014. Even though the change is
small, any decrease in the unemployment rate is positive.
Education plays an important role in who gets employed in what jobs. Studies have
shown that the high level of education a person has makes them more likely to get a job. About
12% of people twenty five and older with less than a high school diploma are unemployed. For
someone with a high school diploma it is about 9%. People who are twenty five and older with

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some kind of college or associates degree the rate is about 6%. For people with a bachelors
degree or higher the unemployment rate is about 4%. As you can see education can really make a
difference for those who are looking for employment.
Technological growth has quite an impact on employment, requiring more and more
people with technological training to operate new machinery. While automation does replace
many workers it also calls for an increasing number of workers to handle and fix this technology.
Because technology is improving and changing there is more of a need for people who are
trained in these fields. This makes many more people want to go to school to learn about this
technology, which increases the demand for technological institutes.
The labor force is made up of a large number of people of all different ages and from all
different backgrounds. Anyone who is employed and is the labor force has done any work for
pay or profit during the survey week. Someone who is unemployed is someone who is currently
jobless and working for a job. Anyone who is in the armed forces, lives in a nursing home, is
under sixteen years of age, or someone who is in prison is not in the labor force. Someone who
currently has a job and is being paid to do that job is someone who is in the labor force.
Job growth in America over the past few years has been a pretty stagnant endeavor over
the past few years. While the United States wages have been growing at a less significant rate
than other nations such as India and China which growing at about 10-20% every year. This has
reduced the cost benefits of off shoring. Job growth in the U.S. from 2000 to 2007 was slow by
historical standards. With 9.2 million jobs created versus a range of approximately 18-20 million
in each of the preceding three decades.

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The United States has been struggling with the issue of unemployment for many years
and the issue is still only making a slow improvement. The unemployment rate is constantly
changing from month to month, but is improving at a steady pace. Education is an important
factor in whether or not someone will become employed or not. Technological growth and
development requires more and more people to get qualified to handle different kinds of
technology in their job. The labor force consists of many different people from many different
backgrounds and consists of anyone who is employed. Job growth in the United States has been
slow but steady and differs greatly from other countries. This improvement though will take
much more time and effort for the employment rate to get back to a place that the government is
comfortable with.