Secondary School Level

Outline: Meaning of unemployment. Classifying unemployment  into voluntary and involuntary types.

Factors responsible for promoting unemployment among the people. Measures reducing unemployment

Unemployment can be defined as the willingness of the people to do work. Unfortunately, there is no work for them to do. In other words, it can be explained as a state of no jobs for men fit and willing to work. India has faced gigantic problems caused due to unemployment. The rate of unemployment is much higher in urban regions as compared to rural.

There is greater unemployment in agricultural sector than in industrial and other major segments.

Usually, unemployment can be classified into two types. They are voluntary unemployment and involuntary unemployment. In the first type of unemployment a person is without job or work due to his own wish. This leads to social problem, which in turn gives rise to social disorganization. It also threatens the smooth working of the society. Due to rapid social change new values come up and some of the older values are declined. At the same time, people are not in a position to discard the older values completely and accept the new altogether. Thus, conflict between the old and the new is the predictable result, which leads to the social disorganization. In economic terminology, this situation is regarded as voluntary unemployment. On the other hand, in involuntary unemployment, the person is unemployed and has nothing to say in the matter. It means that a person is unable to get a remunerative work and is entirely without any wages, although he is very curiously capable of working.

In today's time, the problem of unemployment has become a burning issue of our nation. Some of the main causes of this problem are individual's age and vocational disabilities. External factors like technology and economy also contribute. There is enormous increase in the population. Every year India adds to her population afresh. Business field is subject to fluctuations. Technological expansion contributes to economic development. But unplanned and uncontrolled growth of technology is causing chaos on job opportunities. Mechanization and computerization has led to technological unemployment. Strikes and lockouts have become attached aspect of the industrial world today. Since workers do not get any salary or wages during the strike period, they suffer financial hardships. They become permanently or temporarily unemployed. Our education does not prepare the minds of young generation to be self- employed. On the contrary it makes them dependent on government vacancies, that are hard to come.

The measures for reducing unemployment may lay greater emphasis on creation of opportunities for self-employment. We must try to control the population growth by propagating family planning programmes.