People as a resource are utilized as well as wasted during war time. Elaborate (120words)
Answers
First, some human resources may be unemployed because it takes time for skilled workers to find a job that uses their skills. This is known as frictional unemployment. For example, when students graduate from college, it may take some time for them to find a suitable job or they may need to relocate to find a job in their field. When these graduates are actively seeking work but not working, they are considered frictionally unemployed. In other words, they have skills that employers are seeking, but it takes some time for them and a prospective employer to realize they are a match. During this time, their human resources (i.e., labor) go unused.
Second, human resources may be unemployed because they do not possess the skills employers are seeking. This is known as structural unemployment. For example, in the early days of the telephone, switchboard operators (also known as telephone operators) literally had to manually connect two lines to complete a phone call. The United States had 373,000 switchboard operators in 19682 but only 10,710 as of May 2012.3 Switchboard operators gradually became unemployed because of technological advancements. Technology allowed people to connect automatically and switchboard operators were no longer necessary to connect the phone lines. In other words, the switchboard operators’ skills were no longer needed. Operators needed time to learn new skills and become employable again; during this period their human resources (i.e., labor) went unused.
Because the economy is dynamic, there is always some level of frictional and structural unemployment, which is known as the natural rate of unemployment. However, there is a major difference between frictional and structural unemployment. Those who are frictionally unemployed have useful, transferable skills. Those who are structurally unemployed do not.
Let’s look at the chart again. Notice the difference between the natural rate of unemployment (the red line) and the current unemployment rate (the blue line). The difference between these two lines shows the third type of unemployment—cyclical unemployment. This type of unemployment occurs when the economy has slowed, fewer goods and services are being purchased, and, as a result, fewer workers are needed to produce those goods and services. Think about the economy during the Great Recession of 2007-09. Because the economy was slowing, people started cutting back on expenses such as cell phones. If people stopped buying new cell phones, Apple might have to cut back on the number of people employed to make iPhones or stores to sell them. In this case, you might go to the mall and see a former Apple store sitting vacant as an unused resource. And the people who worked in that store would consequently be unemployed—unused resources.
Finally, it is important to note that resources can be unused altogether or they can be used in a less-than-optimal manner. Underemployment occurs when scarce resources are not put to their best use in the production of goods and services. To continue our example of Apple, let’s consider Steve Jobs. Imagine if he had taken a position with a local fast-food restaurant after dropping out of college instead of cofounding Apple. In that case, he would have been underemployed because his talent and skills could have been better used elsewhere..
In
general, resources go unused whenever the market operates
inefficiently. When this occurs, resources remain unemployed. Usually,
unemployment is discussed in terms of labor. It is important to keep in
mind there are three types of unemployment—frictional, structural, and
cyclical—all of which can cause resources to remain unused. Of course,
it is also possible that other resources remain idle, too. In a
recession, if an automobile plant closes, the plant, tools, and
equipment are unused and the former workers are unemployed.