AGENDA Tues 4/3 & Wed 4/4

1. AGENDA Tues 4/3 & Wed 4/4 Stock Updates QOD #24: Effects of Unemployment Unemployment GDP-Unemployment Connected Types of Unemployment HW: pg 228 #1-6; pg 359 #1-5

2. QOD #24: Effects of Unemployment • What do you think are some of the personal costs of being unemployed? • Try to think of things other than just loss of income. • What could someone do to reduce the possibility of becoming unemployed?

3. The Unemployment Rate • Feb 2010 unemployment rate = 9.7% • Feb 2011 unemployment rate = 8.9% • Feb 2012 unemployment rate = 8.3% • California’s rate for Dec 2009 = 12.3% • California’s rate for Jan 2011 = 12.4% • California’s rate for Feb 2012 = 10.9% • http://www.bls.gov/ • If the number of persons unemployed is 5 million and the labor force is 100 million, then the unemployment rate is 5%. • Unemployment rate will never drop to 0%. Some people will always be unemployed in the United States.

9. Labor Force • Who would be “unemployed?” • 14 year old 9th grader • Captain Joe Smith • Inmate Sally Smith • Retired Grandpa • Stay-at-Home Mom • You Civilian Labor Force = Unemployed + Employed persons

10. EMPLOYED At least one of the following applies: • worked at least 1 paid hour last week • worked in own business or profession (self-employed) • Worked at least 15 hours unpaid in family-owned business • were temporarily absent for illness, vacation, bad weather, child-care, maternity/paternity leave, labor disputes, job-training, family or personal reasons

11. UNEMPLOYED • did not work in the past week • but looked for work in the past four weeks • and is available for work • is waiting to be called back after being laid off • is waiting to report to a job within 30 days

12. Categories of Unemployment • Frictional unemployment: • changing market (demand) conditions with transferable skills • Seasonal workers • Restaurant goes out of business, staff can transfer skills • Structural unemployment: • changing market conditions without marketable skills – need to retrain – always present • Secretary w/ typewriter vs. computer skills • Mechanic on gas engine vs. hybrid • Natural unemployment: • sum of the frictional and structural unemployment in the US

13. Categories of Unemployment • Cyclical unemployment: • difference between the official and natural unemployment • occurs when there is a recession (downturn in economy) • the demand for goods and services decreases and demand for labor decreases • unskilled and surplus workers become unemployed • can be caused by Fed reducing the money supply

14. Full employment • occurs when the natural unemployment rate equals the unemployment rate • when the nation’s unemployment rate drops to “between 4-5%” of unemployment • Basically when 95-96% of workers are working the country is considered fully employed. • Anyone who truly wants a job can find a job…maybe not the job they want...but A JOB. Calculating the percentage of unemployed civilian labor force:

15. Johnny Cash has been one of popular music’s most enduring figures. • Born in the 1930s, his roots and early years were spent in the Arkansas Delta just west of Memphis. • His apprenticeship as a musical performer began during a European tour of duty in the Air Force after World War II where he played with fellow airmen in a band called the Barbarians. • After his return from service, he was married to Vivian Liberto with whom four children were born.

16. It was during this time that Cash’s first recordings were made. • “Hey Porter” and “Cry, Cry, Cry” began his ascension to greatness within the worlds of both country and rock and roll music. • Such well-known songs as “Folsom Prison Blues,” “A Boy Named Sue,” Ring of Fire,” and his wide acceptance in society within both the spiritual community and the young, progressive and rebellious teens of the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s are reason he was inducted into both the Country Music Hall of Fame (1980) and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (1992).

17. Bruce Springsteen began playing music in his hometown of Freehold, New Jersey, because he “wanted to fit in.” • He joined his first band, the Castiles, in 1965 and released his first album, Greetings from Asbury Park, NJ in 1973. • When his Born to Run album was issued in 1975, Springsteen was quickly hailed as “the new Dylan” and “the future of rock and roll,” and he was featured simultaneously on the covers of Time and Newsweek on October 27, 1975.

18. By the early 1980s, Springsteen was being called the “greatest performer in rock and roll” because of his high-energy marathon concerts and his appeal became so widespread that it began to transcend generations and the world of rock and roll. • For example, during the 1984 Presidential election, both Walter Mondale and Ronald Reagan sought to identify themselves with “The Boss” and his immensely popular, anthem-like song of that year, “Born in the U.S.A.” • The album of the same title went to Number One and spawned seven top ten singles. • The 1990s witnessed Springsteen’s break from his long-time support musicians, The E Street Band, and his 1995 album The Ghost of Tom Joad was followed by his first-ever acoustic tour.

19. Despite his popular and financial successes, Bruce Springsteen has always remained concerned with and connected to his small town, working-class roots. Indeed, “the blue-collar troubadour” has performed benefit concerts for and/or donated large sums of money to such diverse organizations as the Oil, Chemical, and Atomic Workers (Local 8-760 of Freehold), USA for Africa, Vietnam Veterans of America, and numerous food banks across the United States such as the Steelworkers-Old Timers Food Bank in Los Angeles. • Much of his music focuses on various social and economic problems.  Bruce Springsteen was inducted to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1999.

20. Unemployment in Rock & Roll • Barry Bluestone and Bennett Harrison in The Deindustrialization of American (1982) found that every one percent increase in the U.S. unemployment rate was associated with • 920 more suicides • 650 more homicides • 500 more deaths from heart and kidney disease and cirrhosis of the liver • 4000 additional admissions to mental hospitals • 3300 additional incarcerations in state prisons. Johnny 99 Worried Man

21. Social Issues of Unemployment • Listen and follow along with the lyrics of the two songs, “Johnny 99” and “Worried Man.” • Write down the depictions of the social aspects of unemployment from the songs.

22. Both songs begin with a man becoming unemployed. • In “Johnny 99,” the auto plant shuts down entirely, which was probably because of the bad economy (recession) in New Jersey and the United States during the early 1980s when this song was written. • Therefore, Ralph was quite likely cyclically unemployed. • On the other hand, the “Worried Man” could well have been structurally unemployed since the place where he worked implicitly remained in operation but just didn’t need him any more.

23. Both songs deal with the crushing consequences of unemployment. • The “Worried Man” realizes that he can buy neither the shoes nor food that his children need because of his unemployment. In addition, he knows he doesn’t own a “money tree,” which could mean accumulated savings, or any “land,” which probably is being used broadly to include real property as well as other financial assets which could be sold for cash.

24. “Worried Man” includes a more extensive discussion of the human costs of unemployment. Because Ralph couldn’t find a job, he got drunk and committed a homicide, for which he was sentenced to ninety-nine years in jail. • In his statement before the judge, Johnny explains that his crime was the direct result of the debts which he couldn’t pay because he was unemployed. In particular, the bank was foreclosing on his mortgage. His final and ultimate desperation is evidenced from his plea for execution rather than spending ninety-nine years in prison.

26. references • Arnold, R (2001). Economics in our times, 2nd edition. Chicago, IL: National Textbook Company • http://www.rockhall.com/teacher/sti-lesson-41/