of the auto and steel industries, the rise of
high-technology jobs, and the offshore
movement of many jobs.Countries measure unemployment by
counting people who are actively looking for
jobs. The unemployment rate takes that num-
ber as a percentage of all employable workers.
In 2007, the unemployment rate in the United
States was 4.4 percent. (Some cyclical and
seasonal variations mean that manufacturing
jobs are declining while some retail jobs are
increasing) (“Employment Situation Summary,”
July 2007.)
Globally, while more people are working
than ever before, so, too, are more people
unemployed than ever before. The Interna-
tional Labour Organization (ILO) estimates that 6.3 percent of the workforce is unem-
ployed, or more than 195 million people at the end of 2006, an all-time high
(International Labour Organization, 2007). The Middle East and North Africa have
the highest unemployment rate in the world (12.2 percent), while the unemployment
rate decreased slightly in Latin America and the Caribbean, to 8 percent in 2006. The
developed economies and the EU saw rates decline, from 7.1 percent in 2004 to 6.2
percent in 2006 (International Labour Organization, 2006). Almost half of the unem-
ployed are the world’s young people aged 15 to 24, who are more than three times
as likely as adults to be out of work (International Labour Organization, 2007).
What can society do to help the unemployed? What shouldit do? Most indus-
trial countries recognize that very few people want to be unemployed, and most
actively seek work, and so they offer some financial support to enable the unemployed
to find work. This short-term income is unemployment compensation. Unemploy-
ment compensation is organized on a state-by-state basis, and each state has its own
regulations. In most cases, an applicant for unemployment compensation must have
already been working for at least 20 weeks and be actively seeking work.
Unemployment compensation is different from “welfare,” which is direct pay-
ments from the government to people in need. In the past decade, American welfare
policy has been increasingly tied to employment, so that one might be ineligible for
welfare if one is not actively looking for work.
Diversity in the Workplace
Domestic comedy movies from the 1950s often begin at a suburban train station,
where a crowd of White middle-class men, all dressed in identical gray suits, prepare
for their work day in the big city. And, in fact, the middle-class work world in 1950
was nearly that homogeneous. In 1950, White men occupied over 90 percent of white-
collar jobs in the United States. Today they occupy 50 percent of managerial, 42 per-
cent of sales, and 41 percent of professional jobs (Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2006).
Women and ethnic minorities are catching up (Figure 13.6).
During the next 50 years, the number of Hispanics and Asian Americans in the
United States will triple, while the White non-Hispanic population will increase a mere
7 percent. The United States will be a “majority minority” country, with more than half
DIVERSITY IN THE WORKPLACE 445JGlobalization has shifted
much industrial production to
the developing world, and
many manufacturing plants in
the United States and Europe
have closed.