Policies to Minimise the Costs of Unemployment

The costs of unemployment depend not only on the number of unemployed but also on the nature of unemployment, whether it is short-term or long-term, and also on who is unemployed. In general, the longer the person is unemployed the greater the costs of each additional period of unemployment, both to the person and to society. Individuals often gradually lose skills, become increasingly depressed or angry at their situation, and suffer more from ill health as the period of unemployment lengthens. Moreover, they miss out on the increase in skill that occurs in many occupations with experience in the job. The loss of skills and potential skills is a loss to society as well as to the individual; the cost of ill health is also a cost to society. These keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.