Economics Unit 2

Working:

• To learn
• Income
• Power
• Prevent Boredom
• Enjoyment
• Achivement

Not working:

• Child/Student: Studying, doesnt have time to work
• New Mothers: Look after Children
• Elderly: Slow, can cause accidents

Specialisation:

• Workers can be more skillful if focused on just one task, quicker and more effective, products may become cheaper, workers pay may increase
• If one part is made wrong, the entire product is ruined, may be boring, less flexible

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ICT has:Created new jobs, Flexible working , Quicker/ easier communications

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Decline in manufactoring: People are replaced by machines

Growth in services: More people have more money to spend

Salary: Yearly earning, paid monthly, Can be full or part time, Skilled non-manual jobs

Wage: Hourly rate, paid weekly, lower skilled- mainly part time and temporary work

Commision: Given for reaching targets, common in sales, includes basic salary/wage

Overtime: Extra pay for extra work, higher rate of pay than mormal wage

Shift work: Work patterns that dont follow standard working hours

Fringe benefits: Benefits that are worth money but arent actually money- clothing discounts, food, company cars etc

BACS: Automatic transfer of funds between bank accounts

Deductions:

• Tax
• National insurance
• Pension

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Supply of labour: How many people are willing to work

Demand for Labour: How many jobs are available

Gender:

• Women are employed more in offices, services, shops etc
• Men are employed more in manufactoring

Ethnicity: Unemployment levels are higher in ethnic minority groups than for white people

Taxtation: Tax is taken away

Benefit Payments: If you earn less than a certain amount, you can apply for benefits

Minimum Wage level: You cannot be paid less than this

Training and skills: People with higher skills can get a higher pay

Gender: men are sometimes paid more than women

Age: 

• The younger you are, the lower the minimum wage is
• Oldr workers tend to have more experience (higher pay)

Trade unions: They can protect workers and negotiate for higher wages

Government Influence: They decide the minimum wage

Surplus of labour: pay goes down

Shortages of labour: pay goes up

Living wage:

• The amount that people need to live on 
• Workers are happier and more productive
• Decrease in unemployment

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Individual: Loss of skills, poorer health, less money

Businesses: Lose customers, less workers

Goverment: More benefits to pay, lower GDP (Gross domestic product- how much a country is worth)

Types of unemployment:

Structural: Whole indistry is lost, knock on effect to other businesses, hundreds unemployed, long term

Seasonal: Mainly with retail, tourism etc, short term, when demand goes down, jobs are lost

Frictional: While you are changing jobs, short term, low skilled

Cyclical: Not enough jobs to go round, long/medium term

Govermnent strategies to help unemployed:

• Tax allowance- earn more before paying tax
• better education
• Apprenticeships
• Cutting benefits
• Increase minimum wage