Unemployment 3
Table 1 unemployment rate from February to October
- Effect unemployment has on life
- Impact on minorities
The unemployment rates in the US impact all the citizens. Still, it is more profound in the minority, including African-American, people of Hispanic Origins, and Asians. In April 2020, the US’s unemployment rate was at its highest, with 14.5% (Bullinger et al., 2020). This was more than any other increase involved more than during any recess. The African-Americans unemployment rates 16.6%, the Asian rate stood at 13.7 while the Latin was the highest with 18.2%. The COVID-19 has majorly impacted the minorities in terms of unemployment, adding to their already existing large figures (Bullinger et al., 2020).
The geographical concentration of the minority in the US is also a factor in unemployment. The majority of the black race live in the south while the Asians live in the west, and more than a third of the Latin is also found in the west.
- Services/industries
Unemployment, coupled with the COVID-19 pandemic, has had adverse effects on both the essential and non-essential industries. Most industries and services have been forced to either cut their services or completely close down (Bullinger et al., 2020). This has negatively impacted the employees’ overall lives, the industries, and the economy at large. With the largest number of people in the essential industries amounting to at least 84% of the total workforce, they have been affected greatly (Bullinger et al., 2020).
- Child abuse and neglect
The advent of the pandemic led to job losses and social isolation, among other restrictions. Combinations of the above factors, with most people confined to their homesteads, are likely to impact heavily on the children’s lives and welfare (Bullinger et al., 2020). Neglect and child abuse have been reported to be the most common form of maltreatment. In metropolitan counties, there have been increased child maltreatment cases as most custodians spend most of their time in work compared to the less metropolitan regions (Bullinger et al., 2020).
How COVID-19 has impacted unemployment
The COVID-19 has impacted unemployment greatly since the government implemented social distancing and staying at home. Most people lost their jobs due to retrenchment, escalating the number of unemployment to 14.7% in less than three months, a rate that has not been witnessed since the country experienced the great depression. Though the pandemic affected the entire workforce, the minorities were hard hit (Brown & De Coa, 2020).
Most metropolitan areas had mechanisms and diverse abilities to respond to the unemployment crises, but with the dawn of COVID-19, all were affected (Brown & De Coa, 2020). This is due to their different industrial mix and exposure. The escalating rates mean that the government has to develop stringent measures to try and solve this issue. However, the projections indicate that there will still be more job losses, and unemployment rates will still sore high as the pandemic continues to rock (Brown & De Coa, 2020).
Conclusion
Most countries have been left at the mercies of the COVID-19 pandemic, which has created unemployment discrepancies through retrenchments, layoffs, and resignations. The US’s unemployment rates have increased in the past eight months to great levels of over 15%, mostly due to the pandemic. Unemployment has had significant impacts on the economy and the social and cultural lives of the Americans. It has affected the Gross Domestic Product and per capita income and more so affecting the minority groups. The research has also highlighted the impact the pandemic has on the US compared to the other EOCD countries and that the US remains among the hardest hit with its unemployment rates going up as compared to other nations. This greatly depicts the impact the COVID-19 has had on the unemployment cases, and if strict measures are not put in place sooner, then the rates are expected to rise even higher