Employer of last resort

Last updated

Employers of last resort (ELR) are employers in an economy to whom workers go for jobs when no other jobs are available; the term is by analogy with "lender of last resort". The phrase is used in two senses:

Contents

The sense of a job guarantee program is used and advocated by some schools of Post-Keynesian economists, notably by authors of Modern Monetary Theory at the University of Missouri-Kansas City, the Levy Economics Institute (both United States) and in the Centre of Full Employment and Equity (Australia), who advocate it as a solution for unemployment.

Use

Colloquially, this may refer to work which is undesirable to most people or pays poorly – for instance, in the United States economy, many fast-food and retail industry jobs represent last-resort employment for many workers. [1]

In economics, the phrase often refers to employers which can hire workers when no other employers are hiring. Their presence may soften the negative impact on employment of downturns in the business cycle. One example of such a program would be the Civilian Conservation Corps, a government agency intended to provide work to young, unemployed men. Military Keynesianism argues that the military can act as an employer of last resort.

Government as employer of last resort

Proposals

A scheme was proposed by the Urban Coalition in the mid-1960s and received some support in the US Senate but was opposed by Lyndon B. Johnson. [2]

More recently L. Randall Wray suggested a proposal for the US where workers would be subject to federal work rules, jobs would be tailored to individuals' existing skills, and the US Labor Department would assess proposals for employment and keep a central register; he estimated a total cost of 1–2% of the US's GDP. [3] Marshall Auerback suggested the government hire all unemployed workers, paying close to the minimum wage. [4]

Criticisms

Marshall Auerback mentioned a number of flaws which his proposal attempted to get around. Such a scheme might have an effect on wages for existing jobs. It would also potentially require a large and expensive state bureaucracy to administer. [4]

Examples

On April 3, 2002 Argentina signed into law the social program Jefes y Jefas de Hogar Desempleados. It acts as an employer of last resort for heads of household who are unemployed and unable to find work. [5]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Keynesian economics</span> Group of macroeconomic theories

Keynesian economics are the various macroeconomic theories and models of how aggregate demand strongly influences economic output and inflation. In the Keynesian view, aggregate demand does not necessarily equal the productive capacity of the economy. It is influenced by a host of factors that sometimes behave erratically and impact production, employment, and inflation.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Unemployment</span> People without work and actively seeking work

Unemployment, according to the OECD, is people above a specified age not being in paid employment or self-employment but currently available for work during the reference period.

Full employment is a situation in which there is no cyclical or deficient-demand unemployment. Full employment does not entail the disappearance of all unemployment, as other kinds of unemployment, namely structural and frictional, may remain. For instance, workers who are "between jobs" for short periods of time as they search for better employment are not counted against full employment, as such unemployment is frictional rather than cyclical. An economy with full employment might also have unemployment or underemployment where part-time workers cannot find jobs appropriate to their skill level, as such unemployment is considered structural rather than cyclical. Full employment marks the point past which expansionary fiscal and/or monetary policy cannot reduce unemployment any further without causing inflation.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">New Keynesian economics</span> School of macroeconomics

New Keynesian economics is a school of macroeconomics that strives to provide microeconomic foundations for Keynesian economics. It developed partly as a response to criticisms of Keynesian macroeconomics by adherents of new classical macroeconomics.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Underemployment</span> Underutilization of workers talents or skills in employment

Underemployment is the underuse of a worker because a job does not use the worker's skills, is part-time, or leaves the worker idle. Examples include holding a part-time job despite desiring full-time work, and overqualification, in which the employee has education, experience, or skills beyond the requirements of the job.

Unemployment benefits, also called unemployment insurance, unemployment payment, unemployment compensation, or simply unemployment, are payments made by authorized bodies to unemployed people. In the United States, benefits are funded by a compulsory governmental insurance system, not taxes on individual citizens. Depending on the jurisdiction and the status of the person, those sums may be small, covering only basic needs, or may compensate the lost time proportionally to the previous earned salary.

Structural unemployment is a form of involuntary unemployment caused by a mismatch between the skills that workers in the economy can offer, and the skills demanded of workers by employers. Structural unemployment is often brought about by technological changes that make the job skills of many workers obsolete.

Job security is the probability that an individual will keep their job; a job with a high level of security is such that a person with the job would have a small chance of losing it. Many factors threaten job security: globalization, outsourcing, downsizing, recession, and new technology, to name a few.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Modern monetary theory</span> Macroeconomic theory

Modern monetary theory or modern money theory (MMT) is a heterodox macroeconomic theory that describes currency as a public monopoly and unemployment as evidence that a currency monopolist is overly restricting the supply of the financial assets needed to pay taxes and satisfy savings desires. According to MMT, governments do not need to worry about accumulating debt since they can create new money by using fiscal policy in order to pay interest. MMT argues that the primary risk once the economy reaches full employment is inflation, which acts as the only constraint on spending. MMT also argues that inflation can be addressed by increasing taxes on everyone to reduce the spending capacity of the private sector.

Active labour market policies (ALMPs) are government programmes that intervene in the labour market to help the unemployed find work, but also for the underemployed and employees looking for better jobs. In contrast, passive labour market policies involve expenditures on unemployment benefits and early retirement. Historically, labour market policies have developed in response to both market failures and socially/politically unacceptable outcomes within the labor market. Labour market issues include, for instance, the imbalance between labour supply and demand, inadequate income support, shortages of skilled workers, or discrimination against disadvantaged workers.

Involuntary unemployment occurs when a person is unemployed despite being willing to work at the prevailing wage. It is distinguished from voluntary unemployment, where a person chooses not to work because their reservation wage is higher than the prevailing wage. In an economy with involuntary unemployment, there is a surplus of labor at the current real wage. This occurs when there is some force that prevents the real wage rate from decreasing to the real wage rate that would equilibrate supply and demand. Structural unemployment is also involuntary.

<i>Full Employment in a Free Society</i>

Full Employment in a Free Society (1944) is a book by William Beveridge, author of the Beveridge Report. It was first published in the UK by Allen & Unwin.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Job guarantee</span> Economic policy proposal for full employment

A job guarantee is an economic policy proposal that aims to create full employment and price stability by having the state promise to hire unemployed workers as an employer of last resort (ELR). It aims to provide a sustainable solution to inflation and unemployment.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">NAIRU</span> Level of unemployment below which inflation would be expected to rise

Non-accelerating inflation rate of unemployment (NAIRU) is a theoretical level of unemployment below which inflation would be expected to rise. It was first introduced as NIRU by Franco Modigliani and Lucas Papademos in 1975, as an improvement over the "natural rate of unemployment" concept, which was proposed earlier by Milton Friedman.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Warren Mosler</span> America economist (born 1949)

Warren Mosler is an American hedge fund manager and entrepreneur. He is a co-founder of the Center for Full Employment And Price Stability at University of Missouri-Kansas City. and the founder of Mosler Automotive.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Unemployment in the United States</span> Explanation of unemployment in the United States, presently and historically

Unemployment in the United States discusses the causes and measures of U.S. unemployment and strategies for reducing it. Job creation and unemployment are affected by factors such as economic conditions, global competition, education, automation, and demographics. These factors can affect the number of workers, the duration of unemployment, and wage levels.

Full Employment Abandoned: Shifting Sands and Policy Failures is a book on macroeconomic issues written by economists Bill Mitchell and Joan Muysken and first published in 2008.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rania Antonopoulou</span> Greek economist and politician

Ourania "Rania" Antonopoulou a.k.a. Rania Antonopoulos is a Greek heterodox economist and Syriza politician. After the January 2015 election, MP Alexis Tsipras named her as the Greek Alternate Minister for Combating Unemployment in his cabinet tasked to implement a job guarantee policy based on her previous work experience and a specific study for Greece with other colleagues at the Levy Economics Institute. She remains a Syriza member. On the 5th of September 2018 she was appointed by the Greek Government as the Permanent Representative of Greece (Ambassador) to the OECD in Paris, France, entrusting her to represent the country despite the severe media attack she had been subjected to a few months earlier. Between February and August 2015, she also was a member of the Hellenic Parliament.

The National Emergency Employment Defense Act, aka the NEED Act, is a monetary reform proposal submitted by Congressman Dennis Kucinich in 2011, in the United States. The bill has failed to gain any co-supporters and was not introduced to the floor of the house.

In economics, non-accelerating inflation buffer employment ratio (NAIBER) refers to a systemic proposal for an in-built inflation control mechanism devised by economists Bill Mitchell and Warren Mosler, and advocated by Modern Money Theory as replacement for NAIRU. The concept of NAIBER is related to the idea of a job guarantee aimed to create full employment and price stability, by having the state promise to hire unemployed workers as an employer of last resort (ELR).

References

  1. Scott Sernau (2014). Social Inequality in a Global Age. SAGE Publications. p. 96.
  2. "Nation: Employer of Last Resort". Time. Dec 29, 1967.
  3. Wray, L. Randall (June 8, 2011). "The Job Guarantee: A Government Plan for Full Employment". The Nation. Retrieved 13 January 2014.
  4. 1 2 Auerback, Marshall. "Time to Try Government as Employer of Last Resort". Huffington Post. November 17, 2009. Retrieved 13 January 2014.
  5. Kostzer, Daniel. "Argentina: A Case Study on the Plan Jefes y Jefas de Hogar Desocupados, or the Employment Road to Economic Recovery" (PDF). The Levy Economics Institute.