The State of American Employment Research Paper

The State of American Employment - Research Paper Example The State of American Employment This shows somehow a stable state of the economy; however, further analysis of the statistics could portray otherwise. Motoko (par 3); Shah & Lee (par 10) say that politicians could term such statistics as weak and troubling because they could assert that despite an increase in employment opportunities, the growth in job market cannot match the increasing number of those seeking jobs hence an increase in the unemployed. These small changes are also described by Barro (par 1) as dismal in terms of economic recovery. The State of American Employment Age and Student Debt The teenagers in the age group of 16 to 19 years recorded an unemployment rate of 23.7% which did not change from the previous month. This was remarkably higher than that of adult males who had an employment rate of 7.3% and 7.2% recorded for adult females. This clearly shows that with an increase in age, there is greater job stability. Adults have job experience as compared to their inexperienced teenagers. There was n o change in the unemployment rate among the teenagers between 16 to 19 years of age; this was similar to adult males where the rate stood at 7.3% while the females recorded an increase of 0.2% (US Bureau of Statistics) The youths as consequence of unemployment are finding it hard to sustain themselves. Rampell (par 1) states that in this generation, the future of the young looks bleak. She says only one out of six young people work full time. Most of the young are struggling to put up with their parents; three out of five live with their parents. 73% of young people believe they need more education to find a better career, but only half of this percentage confirms they will enroll in the near future. Among the unemployed youths recent graduates are included. Weisman (par 6) in his article â€Å"53% of recent grads are underemployed or Jobless† says that, recent graduates are likely to work as waiters, waitress, bartenders, and food service helpers than as engineers, doctors, physicists, or mathematicians. However, most graduates will not take these jobs because the college degree is very expensive and students accumulate debts during the course of their studies. Re-servicing these loans is much harder when you are working for low salaries. Secondly, when college graduates ta ke up a low-paid or low-skill job, they're probably taking the place of a less educated worker. Krugman (par 11) argues that the debt burden is not the main problem facing the youths but it is, rather, the lack of jobs, which is preventing many graduates from getting started on their working lives. Gender and Employment Stability Analysis based on gender show that women have a slight edge over the males when it comes to job stability. The unemployment rate for women 16 years and over was 7.7% up by 0.2% from the previous month, while the rate for the males in the same age group was recorded as 8.0% and showed no change from the previous month. When the age is raised to 20 and above, the unemployment rate for women is 7.2 up by 0.2% from the previous month, while the men have an unemployment rate of 7.3% which had no change from the previous month. This statistics clearly indicate that the job stability between sexes is almost becoming equal. Both the young Males and females suffer f rom a high rate of unemployment as expressed by the fact that when the age is increased from 16 to 20 the unemployment goes down by 0.5% for females and 0.7% for

Group leadership project reflection Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Group leadership project reflection - Essay Example Then the similarities and differences between them will be illustrated, with special highlight on the importance of each towards the success of a team. The influence of a leader on a follower and what a follower expects from a leader will also be discussed. Furthermore, the factors which make a good leader will be dissected and then the problems leaders or followers might face in certain situations. What makes a leader efficient and how does he achieve these goals? What makes a follower efficient and what makes it easy for him to be so? Focus will be placed upon these questions as on how this efficiency is developed in each. Leadership and its many styles and forms will also be discussed and the effect of these varying styles upon a follower and his efficiency. This will all be done so collectively and in general but by focusing on the theme of each week, i.e. leadership in women, the power and importance of charismatic leadership, leadership challenges and failures, leadership trust and ethics, leading high technology organizations and global leadership and influence, and adapting on what has been learnt from each week. What is a leader and what is a follower? There can be a great number of definitions for both a leader and a follower. The simplest of course is that a leader is someone that instructs and follower is someone that follows these instructions. But it isn’t quite as simple as that because a soldier who follows the instructions of a general cannot strictly be considered a follower and a teacher who instructs a student on his homework cannot strictly be considered a leader. What then is the precise definition of each? According to Brosnahan (1998, stated in Lau 2000, pg 212) the definition of a leader and leadership vary from people to people but he goes on to define a leader broadly as, ‘†¦ a somewhat paternal figure, autocratic, wise and knowing, able to make hard decisions†¦Ã¢â‚¬ . Gary Yukl (2006) defines leadership as â⠂¬Å"the course of having an influence on others to comprehend and be in agreement about what requires to be done and how it should be done, and the progression of facilitating individual and collective efforts to achieve shared objectives† (p. 8). Yet others define leadership as â€Å"a process whereby an individual influences a group of individuals to achieve a common goal.† Peter Northouse (2007). What does this actually signify? It implies that there is far more to a leader than just giving out instructions. A leader is someone who does not just give out instructions but rather someone directs and guides a specific group of people towards doing something and someone who unites the aims and intentions of that group such that they reach their own personal goals as well as the specific common goal. What then is a follower or followership? The former is a term very commonly used and given little thought. The latter is a term rarely heard and not fully understood. This is because ‘follower’ is a devalued term, where most people consider it as blindly following instructions. In truth, there can be no leader without a follower and good followership is what drives a team towards its ultimate goal. Once a far neglected area of research, research is now being conducted into the role and importance of a follower and followership skills are being developed just as leadership skill would be. Followership can be defined as ‘†¦ the ability to effectively follow the directives and support the efforts of a leader to