Wangu Mwenda

EMPLOYMENT AND UNEMPLOYMENT.

1. Compare employment and unemployment

rates in the LDCs and the developed
countries.
Two thirds of working age youth in some developing countries are
either unemployed or trapped in low-quality jobs, according to the ILO
Global Employment Trends for Youth 2013 report.
In six of the ten countries surveyed, over 60 per cent of young people
are either unemployed, working but in low quality, irregular, low wage
jobs, often in the informal economy, or neither in the labor force nor in
education or training. In Liberia, Malawi and Togo, the figure exceeds
70 per cent.
These figures are staggering but not surprising in such LEDCs where
economies are almost non-existent. For example, Liberia is one of the
poorest countries in the world, and its economy is extremely
underdeveloped, largely due to the First Liberian Civil War in 1989-96.
The civil war destroyed much of Liberia's economy, especially the
infrastructure in and around Monrovia. The democratically elected
government, installed in August 1997, inherited massive international
debts and currently relies on revenues from its maritime registry to
provide the bulk of its foreign exchange earnings. This is the main
reason as to why more than 64% of Liberians live below the poverty
line and more than 1.3 million live in extreme poverty.
This is an extreme paradigm shift to the high economies and
employment rates of developed countries such as Dubai where
unemployment rates are below 4.3% and aim to reduce it to 1% by
2021.

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2. Why do employment rates differ?

Poor education system
The education structure for example, used in Africa is not beneficial to
the students as it does not directly correspond to the prevailing
economic activities outside the school system. Rather than providing
useful skills to students and molding professionals, theory is what is
being taught instead of practical. Such education systems just impart
literary and general education without sufficient practical content. The
end result of this system is an individual whose skills do not replicate
the current economic trends in the African job market. Since the
education curriculum in Africa does not consist of industrial skills, it
produces many graduates with non-transferable skills.
Lack of training facilities
Another vital cause of unemployment in Africa, particularly amongst
the youth, is due to absence of training facilities and sufficient
vocational guidance. As previously listed, Africas education structure
is flawed as it purely provides academic knowledge that is not work
oriented.
Bad leadership
Inflation, extortion, and terrible agreements are examples of the bad
leadership that are prevailing in many parts of the world which have a
stupendously low economy.
Other reasons can include:
Race - The average unemployment rate for Blacks in 2011 was 15.8
percent, compared to 7.9 percent for Whites, and 11.5 percent for
Hispanics. Historically, Blacks have had persistently higher
unemployment rates than the other major racial and ethnic groups. In
addition, the increase in the black unemployment rate during the

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recession was larger than that for other races partly because workers
with less education are particularly hard hit during recessions.
Gender Across the EU, women earn less per hour than men do overall.
In 2010, over the EU-27 as a whole, womens gross hourly earnings
were, on average, 16.2 % below those of men.

3. What are some of the attempts by the

world to improve work opportunities amongst
nations?
Public and Government funding- Sponsor start-up growth with lowcost funding for targeted groups especially female-led start-ups and
academic institutions looking to boost the business readiness of
students.
Reducing the geographical immobility of labor: Many people
have the right skills to find fresh work but factors such as high house
prices and housing rents, family and social ties and regional differences
in the cost of living make it difficult and sometimes impossible to
change location in order to get a new job. Many economists point to a
low level of new house building as a major factor impeding labor
mobility and the chances finding new work.
Lower taxes on businesses that employ more workers might be
effective, for example cuts in employer national insurance
contributions for young, low-paid workers
Stimulate work incentives Higher minimum wage or a living wage.
Give the workers a reason to come in to work. For example, during the
Garissa attack in Kenya, many of the RECCE squad were only being
given 500 shillings a day for lunch. This is an absurdly low amount of
money to risk your life over and many of these officers had families so
there leaving nothing behind if they were to die.

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In Conclusion, Unemployment is not an easy nor quick fix. It is not
likely for a country to have a 0% unemployment rate due to the everchanging world economy. Therefore it is a problem that needs to be
tackled with severe aggression to make sure a country does not end up
in a recession. The biggest key altogether is Maximum Corporation
with the citizens and the government to ensure that the problem is
being dealt with, as it should.