Globalization and Labor Issues - Essay Example

Globalization and Labor Issues From the census figures released in it is estimated that one out of seven Americans are living in poverty. In the year 2012, approximately 46.5 million Americans were living in poverty and this is suggested to be largest number in the five decades that census has measured poverty. Poverty in the United States is measured by relating household income to poverty level for a given size of a household. The poverty threshold or level is adjusted every year to take into consideration the changes in the cost of living.

Children, families headed by single women, women, racial and ethnic minorities are particularly susceptible to poverty and deep poverty1.On the other end, the developing world has made considerable improvement in cutting its poverty rate by a half. According to the most recent statistics, 21% of individuals living in the developing nations lived below or at $1.25 per day. That is down from 43% in 1990 and 52% in the year 1981. This is an indication that 1.22 billion individuals lived on less than $1.

25 each day in 2010, in comparison to 1.91 billion in 1990, and approximately 1.94 billion people in 1981. However, there is a widening gap between the poor and the rich, and those who are capable of accessing opportunities. From the information, it is clear that the developing world is doing a considerable job in reducing its poverty line2. In regards to GDP, it does not mean that a nation with a good GDP have the best living standards. For instance, there are individuals living in poverty in the United States and other nations of the world including both the developed and developing nations.

There is a huge deal of inconsistency among the areas of the world which concern with trends in unemployment. In addition, there is a general division between developing and developed regions. For instance, unemployment rates in the European Union region and Developed Economies remain above the historical levels (8.6% in 2012 compared to an average of 6.9% between 1998 and 2007). On the other hand, in developing nations, unemployment rates are below average compared to the decade before the crisis.

The main reason for this divide is that the developing economies have considerably outdone developed economies in period of recovery in terms of their economic growth3. There is proof that stimulus packages implemented in the developing nations to mitigate the effects of the crisis were directed towards addressing weaknesses of the labor market. In contrast, the limited effectiveness of monetary and fiscal measures implemented to curb the effect of crisis on the labor markets and the recession situation in Europe, has led to a considerable increase (14.8 million) in the number of unemployed individuals since 2007.

This translates to more than half of the total world increase in unemployment (the region only accounts for 16% of the total global workforce). Another reason for the disparity in employment trends between developing and developed economics is that unemployment rates in developing nations have weaker correlation with macroeconomic fluctuations than in developed nations and this is attributed to huge shares of workers outside wage and formal employment4.BibliographyNational Center for Law and Economic Justice.

“Poverty in the United States: A Snapshot.” National Center for Law and Economic Center, 2013, http://www.nclej.org/poverty-in-the-us.phpThe World Bank. “Poverty Overview.” The World Bank, 2014, http://www.worldbank.org/en/topic/poverty/overviewInternational Labour Organization. Global Employment Trends 2013. Geneva: International Labour Organization, 2013.