Causes of Unemployment

The individual and societal causes of unemployment in the perspectives of Max Weber, Karl Marx and Social inter-actionist theories. The relevance of these theories to explain the causes of unemployment in the global economy in the mid-century.In this essay I will discuss how unemployment is an individual and a social problem and how Max Weber distinguished power, authority and coercion and how the functionalist, conflict theorist and symbolic interaction theory view the economy and by the mid century how they have evolved and the role of these theories to explain social and economic phenomenon.

How unemployment is individual and social problem

Unemployment is caused by many factors in a modern market economy. It can be caused by rapid technological change, business cycle or recessions, seasonal factors in some industries particularly such as changes in tastes and climatic conditions which affects demand for certain products and services, individual perceptions and willingness to work and search for jobs, their values and attitudes towards some jobs and about employers, accessibility for retraining and acquisition of work skills, willingness and perception of unemployed of the benefits of training and the possibility for them to get a job after the training even though they have a chance to get a job, discrimination in the workplace based on race, color. religion, ethnicity, age and class.

It can be seen from the above causes unemployment in a particular period can be a combination of caused by social factors and how the economy as a whole works and also due to the subjective individual factors. In a sociological point of view according to functionalist and conflict theorists the unemployment is caused primarily by the social factors than by the individual factors. However according to Max Weber and symbolic interaction theories individuals construct their own social constructs and perception and they can be subjective in their behavior and there fore can become unemployed even though the actual condition they can get a job in the job market.