Overview
Unemployment refers to the situation in which individuals are willing and able to find work are seeking employment, however they cannot find a suitable job.
To be counted as unemployed a person must fit all these criteria:
- They are without work
- They are actively looking for work
- They are able to start working right away
Unemployment rate formula
Currently, as of July 2023, the unemployment rate is 3.6% in Australia.
Costs of unemployment
Individually, people who have been unemployed for a long period of time may suffer economically or socially, for example:
- May need to relocate to other areas to search for work to survive
- Family members may separate
- May rely heavily on savings, or dissavings.
- May lower self esteem
For the whole society, the economy and various issues will arise, such as:
- Lower society’s living standards
- Reduce business investments
- Production of goods and services decreases
- Government spending on welfare increases (helping unemployed with living costs)
- Lower economic growth