Unemployed on Purpose?

Definitions:
*GDP-gross domestic product

As I was skimming over the articles on the New York Times website, one article about unemployment caught my eye. Toward the end of the article, Krugman, the man who wrote our new Economics book, was mentioned! Acoording to the article some critics suggest that unemployment benefits are being taken up by people who do not want to return to work. Those who are evaluating tis situation say that because the benefits of the unmployment insurance are cushioned, people find it more comfortable to stay unemployed instead of going back to work. Krugman argues that the unemployed cannot be guaranteed a job when the product or service they make is not being demanded due to the recession. However, studies were shown that e=when given an unemployment benefit exhaustion date, people would find a job one week prior to the exhastion date.

From an economic standpoint, it is difficult to rid our nation of the recession quickly if we have less workers to help pick the economy off of it's feet. When more people have jobs, they contribute to the amount of product being supplied, but do people have enough money to demand more of what is supplied? This law of supply and demand is again introduced in relation to jobs. It is difficult to climb out of a recession with this law obstructed.

I think that some people do use theri unemployment benefits because they feel comfortable not working, but on the other hand, there are a great many who truly cannot find jobs after being unexpectedly fired or laid off. It is a very delicate situation to try and fix the problem when we're not sure if the unemployment are being used out of want or need.

Article: http://economix.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/03/17/do-jobless-benefits-discourage-people-from-finding-jobs/#more-57175

(Originally posted 3/21/10)