Jonuldof rlculum adSupclon
Wlnr 1967.Vol 2, NO 2,193-199
193
Perspectives and Imperatives
EDUCATION IN AN ERA OF HIGH
UNEMPLOYMENT:
A CURRICULAR RESPONSE
DON DAWSON, University of Ottawa
Unemployment rates in advanced industrial nations have been at unprecedented levels throughout the last decade. The prospects for substantially
lower rates of unemployment seem dim despite the so-called economic recovery under way. While a great many factors will influence rates of unemployment in the near future, the following are relevant to this discussion.
First, high technology will eliminate large numbers of jobs and, second,
new developments in the world economy will result in further job loss in
developed nations. Will high tech create more jobs than it eliminates? Perhaps
it is more illuminating to ask who will become unemployed as a result of
technological innovation. Bluestone, for example, reveals that of the 674,000
skilled and semi-skilled workers in the old mill-based industries of New
England (apparel, textiles, shoes, etc.) who had lost their jobs between 1957
and 1975, only 3 percent were able to make it into the expanding high-tech
sector.' Recent British data indicate further that 75 percent of the "long-term"
unemployed in 1980 had formerly been employed in manual work. Thus,
while it appears that the new high tech is eliminating jobs, it is the manual,
semi-skilled and skilled workers who are becoming unemployed as a result.
However, it is predicted that microprocessor technology will eliminate
jobs at all levels: professionals, corporate executives, middle management,
clerical, and sales personnel as well as industrial blue-collar workers will be
affected.' No level of society will escape the job loss attendant to the new high
technology. The dilemma that developed economies face is that without the
new microelectronic technology, they will not be competitive in world markets, and as their industries decline, unemployment rates will soar even higher
'Barry Bluestone, "Abandoning Industry in North America,"PoilcyAternatvi s (Winter 1984):
1-5.
'Michael A Smith and Andrew F. Slmpkins, Unemployment andLeaere:A Review and Some
ProposaforResearcb (Salford, U.K: Center for Work and Leisure Studies, Universiy of Salford.
1980), p. 13.
IF. G. Bushe, Futunre Work*: A FieldGuide (Toronto: Ontario Educational Communications
Authority, 1984).
194
Education in an Era of High Unemployment
than if the new technology had been introduced. Thus, the new technology
will increasingly create unemployment throughout the work force, while it
maintains competitiveness and prevents countless others from joining the
ranks of the jobless.
As the development of high technology eliminates jobs, other laborintensive work is becoming easier to shift to Third World countries, where
labor costs are lower. For example, some corporations have started to "farm
out" their data processing needs to countries such as the Philippines, Barbados, Hong Kong, Taiwan, India, and Singapore, where labor costs are about
20 percent of those in highly developed nations. This makes the farming out
of clerical work very attractive to industry given the new communications and
processing technologies. Thus, there is a shift of capital investment to "lessdeveloped" Third World countries by multinational corporations with little
interest in any one nation's employment situation. Consequently, the future
of unemployment in any one country substantially depends upon the position
of that country in the world economy.
Developed nations may well face continuing increases in rates of unemployment resulting from automation and the shift of labor-intensive work to
the Third World. In any event, regardless of government policy, the prospect
of long-term mass unemployment in the future due to technology and changes
in the world economy is real.
THE DEMISE OF THE FULL EMPLOYMENT GOAL
In the quarter century between 1950 and 1975 the average unemployment
rate in North America was approximately 5 percent or less. A rate of this
magnitude is widely considered to be evidence of "full employment" in that
there will always be a number of workers who, for various reasons, will be
briefly without jobs. In Beveridge's British report on Full Employment in a
Free Society, published in 1944, the "irreducible minimum" rate of unemployment was envisaged to be about 3 percent.' In general, rates of unemployment between 3 and 5 percent were considered to be "full employment."
This minimum rate of unemployment was seen to be "frictional" in nature
(i.e., due to workers having fairly short intervals in moving between jobs).
For J. M. Keynes, full employment meant the absence of involuntary unemployment.' Fncuonal unemployment, seasonal unemployment, and some voluntary unemployment were regarded as inevitable (hence, the 3 percent to 5
percent rate of joblessness). However, distinguishing between voluntary and
involuntary unemployment, while interesting, is problematic. For example, is
seasonal unemployment voluntary or involuntary? In any event, Cheshire's
'William Henry Beveridge, Full Employment in a FreeSociety (London. Allen and Unwln,
1944).
of Employmen, Interest, and Money (London:
'John Maynard Keynes, 7be General 7bTheory
Macmillan, 1936).
Don Dauwson
195
definitions of "frictional," "structural," and "demand deficiency" unemployment are most useful. 6
Thefrictionally unemployed, as'has been mentioned, are those unemployed persons for whom jobs in their field appear to exist. This type of
unemployment is generally of short duration and is resolved through the
matching of worker and job. The struurallyunemployed, on the other hand,
are those for whom no jobs exist in their own fields, but for whom there
would be jobs if they changed fields. Demanddeficiencyunemployment exists
when there are unemployed persons for whom there are no jobs even if they
were to change fields.
Full employment could possibly be achieved in instances of frictional
and structural unemployment (i.e., through job placement centers, incentives
for worker relocation, and retraining programs). However, full employment
would be effectively unattainable, at least in the short run, in circumstances
of demand deficiency unemployment.
Since the Second World War and following the mass unemployment of
the '30s, it had become an article of faith to maintain full employment Success
in maintaining full employment during the decades immediately after the war
reinforced the acceptance of the full employment goal in North America.
Employment was seen as a right that should be available to all. Article 23 of
the Universal Declaration of Human Rights issued by the United Nations in
1948 includes the following: "Everyone has the right to work, to free choice
of employment, ... and to protection against unemployment" In recent years,
however, the full employment goal has been eroded considerably.' For example, at a recent international conference on human rights the Canadian representative made the following observation:
Some delegations represented here would argue that the right to work imposes on
the government an explicit obligation to provide every worker with a job. Our unemployment figures, therefore, represent for them a serious failure to respect this right.
But in our view, respect for the nghtto workandfullernploymentare notsynonymous.8
A movement away from "full employment" to "minimal unemployment"
as a national goal has taken place since the mid-70s. The difference between
the two is not purely semantic. While full employment allows for some
measure of voluntary and frictional unemployment, minimal unemployment
accepts that structural and demand deficiency unemployment and involuntary
unemployment in general may be minimized but not eliminated. However,
'P C Cheshire, Regional L'nemployment Deferee in GreatBrtain(Cambridge Unlversit
of Cambridge Press, 1973).
'See Alan Deacon, "Unemployment and Politics in Britain since 1945," in bThe
Workless State,
ed Brian Showier and Adrian Sinfield (Oxford: Martin Robertson, 1981), for the British case, and
Orley Ashenfelter, "The Withering Away of a Full Employment Goal," CanadianPublicPolicy 9,
1 (1983): 114-125, for the North American case.
'Quoted in "Soviets Chide Canada," Oauwa Citzen, 1 June 1985, A3.
196
Education in an Era of High Unemployment
for some the movement away from the goal of full employment has gone past
minimal unemployment to a goal of "maximum unemployment".
In a society of increasing unemployment, rapid replacement of workers by automation,
earlier retirement, later entry to the Work force, innumerable make-work jobs, and
increasing income maintenance programs, it seems ridiculous to be concerned with
non employment might be a more reasonable
full employment. Rather, maximum
goal for a post-industrial society.9
Holland's Social Affairs Minister recently contended that a national goal
°
of full employment is dangerous for social development." He further stated
that full-time, year -long jobs thwart human social growth Indeed, lack of full
time paid work should provide the time and opportunity to develop aspects
of a meaningful life such as human relationships, family, culture, religion, and
so on. Again, while the Dutch position may be viewed as extreme, clearly the
goal of full employment has lost much of its luster
The withering away of the full employment goals of liberal democracies
such as the U.S., Britain, and Canada is due to three factors The consensus in
the immediate post World War II period that the full employment goal should
be and could be attained was based upon the agreement that unemployment
represented wasted human resources and hardship As well, it was agreed
that full employment could be reached without prohibitive cost to society
The first factor that has diminished the full employment goal concerns wasted
human resources. It is now recognized that some involuntary (structural and/
or demand deficiency) unemployment may be a result of increased productive
efficiency. Simply, high levels of production can be maintained (through
automation, etc.) without the full participation of the work force Thus, human
resources are not being wasted through unemployment, they are in fact
superfluous to the productive enterprise.
Second, the belief that unemployment represents hardship has been
challenged. For example, many argue that generous unemployment insurance
benefits have had an impact upon the work incentive and have probably led
to increased voluntary unemployment. That is to say, relatively high levels of
unemployment benefits reduce the monetary cost of unemployment to the
individual. Moreover, with the advent of multi income families, individual
unemployment for many families does not mean the total absence of income
as it did in the Great Depression In any case, unemployment in the 1980s is
largely held to represent far less hardship than it did at any previous time.
The last factor that has led to the demise of the full employment goal is
the accepted belief, after the experience of the 1970s, that unemployment
cannot be reduced without substantial increases in the inflation rate. Consejohn Farina, "Perceptions of Time," in ReaaOn and Leina: Issues in an Era of Cbange,
(State College, Pa.. Venture, 1980), p. 29.
ed. Thomas L Goodale and Peter A.Wintt
'Cired in Varuer Instiute of the Family, Evloprng Work and Income Opportunties in the
1980o (Ottawa Vanier Institute of the Family, 1979).
DonDamson
197
quently, advanced societies are no longer willing to pay the price for full
employment The new consensus on unemployment seems to be that government should attempt to limit the extent and hardship of unemployment, as
long as such action does not lead to increased rates of inflation. For example,
some economists now embrace the notion that there is a "natural" or "normal"
rate of unemployment sometimes referred to as NAIRU, or non-accelerating
inflation rate of unemployment.
EDUCATING FOR UNEMPLOYMENT?
In response to continuing high levels of unemployment, education can
attempt somehow to equip students with skills that will increase their chance
of finding and keeping a job or to furnish them with the knowledge and skills
they need to create their own employment. However, in the face of structural
and demand deficiency unemployment, these attempts to increase the employability of individuals will not do much to alter the collective problem of high
unemployment. In what ways, then, can the school react to a situation in which
a significant proportion of its students may at sometime during their lrves
experience unemployment?
After extensive interviews with many unemployed persons, Marsden and
Duff concluded, "It is a sad comment on the education system ... that some
of the workless should still need so badly even that inferior work which has
given them so little."" This unexpected conclusion holds that the school
system should prepare people for the possibility of unemployment. Yet, the
absence of such education is becoming a recurring theme in the literature on
the effects of joblessness. Smith and Simpkins, for example, decry "the almost
total lack of education for unemployment."' Of particular interest is Smith
and Simpkins' use of the phrase "education for unemployment." Although
primaface educating people for unemployment seems to be a particularly
negative and defeatist concept, the extremely high rate of youth unemploy
ment in advanced economies is a situation that the schools must recognize.
Schools must change their existing frameworks of assumptions and practices,
which are based upon the concept of preparation for employment, to meet
squarely the prospect of increasingly widespread and long-term unemploy
ment among their graduates. Schooling should not merely provide "education
to earn a living," but also "education for living."' 3
"Dennis Marsden and Evan Duff, onrkless: Some Unemploed Men and Their Families
(Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1975), p. 264.
"Michael A Smith and Andrew E.Smpkins, UnemploymenandLeire AReviewand Some
ProaforResearci (Salford, UK: Center for Work and Leisure Studies, University of Salford,
1980), p. 29.
USee inter alla Thomas F Green, Work, Leitwa, and the American Scbools (New York
Random House, 1968), and Harold Entwisde, Edicarion, Worktand Leie (London. Routledge
&Kegan Paul, 1970).
198
Education in an Era ofHigh Unemployment
What might be the possible curricular responses of schools to the issue
of chronic unemployment? In the most comprehensive treatment to date,
Watts lists the following as three of the possible curricular objectives in
"education for unemployment":'
1. Survival skills. To equip people with the knowledge and skills they will need
to survive if they are unemployed:
(a) Knowledge of unemployment benefits
(b) Knowledge of redundancy rights
(c) Knowledge of welfare rights in general
(d) Skills of claiming rights
(e) Skills of handling a limited budget
(f) Awareness of local posslbilities for "illegal" pan-time jobs, and possible
consequences
(g) Awareness of psychological effect of being unemployed, and skills for
coping with it
(h) Awareness of social pressures on the unemployed, and skills for coping
with them
(i) Knowledge of support services in the community
2. Contextual awareness. To help people to determine the extent to which the
responstblhity for being unemployed lies with society rather than with the individual
(a) Awareness of possible alienating effects of work
(b) Awareness of effects of technological change
(c) Awareness of possible economic and political solutions to unemployment
(d) Awareness of possible alternative patterns of work and leisure
3. Leisuresklls To equip people with knowledge and skills which will help them
to make good use of their increased "leisure" time while they are unemployed.
(a) Knowledge of courses in educational institutions
(b) Knowledge of local possibilities for voluntary community work
(c) Skills of managing use of own time
The above objectives have essentially two underlying aims Survival skills
and letsure skills both have the aim of helping people get along better while
unemployed. As such, these objectives tacitly accept the status quo of unem
ployment. Contextual awareness, on the other hand, has the aim of seeking
to help people see unemployment as a social rather than an individual phe
nomenon.
The balance struck between these aims is crucial in determining the
ultimate goal of education for unemployment. Educating for unemployment
can, if survival and leisure skllls alone are emphasized, lead to people simply
accepting and trying to cope with unemployment Contextual awareness should
also be given priority so that people can appreciate the political and economic
factors related to unemployment.
SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION
The prospect of continuing and expanding high levels of unemployment
is real. The technological revolution and the changing world economy render
"Anthony Gordon Wars, Educaron, Uneployment,and tbeFuture of Work (Milton Keynes,
U.K.: Open University Press, 1983), pp. 81-82.
Don Dawson
199
the ability of advanced nations to avoid high unemployment questionable.
The goal of full employment may be fading into obsolescence. Highly developed nations are increasingly accepting high levels of unemployment as a
lasting structure of technologically advanced systems of production. Consequently, full employment is no longer a realistic national goal. Therefore,
there must be consideration of-introducing education for unemployment in
the public schools. In circumstances of high unemployment, schools should.
prepare students for possible unemployment and the accompanying free time.
Most probably the envisioned education for unemployment would have to
take the form of training people in individual coping skills, but awareness of
the political and economic causes of unemployment should also be discussed.
The present and future reality of high unemployment will necessitate a
change in the curriculum of public schools. There is a movement away from
the goal of full employment toward acceptance of high levels of unemployment on a continuing basis. In the post-World War II years the unemployed
were generally blamed for their joblessness. This view was a corollary of the
goal of full employment. The problem of unemployment was handled by
keeping the numbers of jobless relatively small and by blaming the unem
ployed themselves for their unemployment.
Under present conditions it is apparently no longer possible to keep the
numbers of unemployed small, and it is increasingly difficult to realistically
label the majority of unemployed lazy. As late as 1980, 51 percent bf Canadians
agreed with the statement that "people don't have jobs because they don't
want to work." However, in the face of current economic realities, just three
s
years later in 1983 only 26 percent supported that sentiment."
Consequently, education for leisure and unemployment may be looked
to as necessary additions to the curriculum. This new approach, then, recognizes that high levels of unemployment are here to stay, and that schools must
act to prepare students for this new reality of "forced leisure." Actually,
education for leisure is not a radical, new idea. In 1918, the Commission on
the Reorganization of Secondary School Education of the National Education
6
Association put forth its "Cardinal Principles of Secondary Education."' The
seventh cardinal principle or objective of the educational process was the
"worthy use of leisure time " What is required today is a return to this principle
and the development of appropriate curriculums that equip students with the
knowledge, skills, and perspectives that will enable them to cope with increased
leisure time during periods of unemployment.
DON DAWSON is Associate Professor, Department of Leisure Studies, Faculty of
Social Sciences, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, Canada, KIN 6N5
"Cited in "Unemployed Can No Longer Be Treated as Simple Stereotypes," Ottatw Ctizen,
1 October 1985, A4,.
'"Commission on the Reorganization of Secondary Education, Cardinal /Prnlesof Sec
ondary Educaton (Washington, D.C.. Department of the Interior, Bureau of Education, 1918).
Copyright © 1987 by the Association for Supervision and Curriculum
Development. All rights reserved.