We do not agree with Michael Taft about a lot of things but he is right about the plague of unemployment; worse because it is so unnessessary. We could banish it in the morning if economists Left and Right would accept the basic premise of Modern Monetary Theory and the Job Guarantee.
The Inexorable Rise of Long-Term Unemployment
from Notes On The Front by Michael Taft…Long-term unemployment is the worst part of any jobless figures. We can deal with frictional unemployment (a temporary period during which people change jobs). Even short-term unemployment can be dealt with – through re-training, back-to-education, temporary employment measures. But long-term unemployment (LTU) represents a terrible drain on the households who experience it, on the economy that shoulders it. The literature is vast on the economic, social, physical, and psychological impact of LTU. And the longer someone remains on the dole, the harder it is to get back into the workforce….
Over a third of the unemployed are long-term, compared to less than a quarter a year ago. For males, the situation is even worse. Over 41 percent are long-term unemployed while the rise in female LTU is just as stark. More and more are stagnating on the dole queues. This will wreak a terrible cost in the future – at a personal and social level. For any new government this would be a major challenge. Now throw in the fiscal crisis, the banking crisis, the growth (or lack of) crisis and we have a perfect storm.
