Title: The Overall Effects of Unemployment | Small Business - Chron.com
Headings: The Overall Effects of Unemployment
The Overall Effects of Unemployment
Individual Consequences of Unemployment
Social Consequences of Unemployment
Effects of Unemployment on the Economy

Content: The correlation between joblessness and property crime was greatest among the young. The study found that joblessness increased the likelihood of burglary for persons aged 18 to 29 four times more so than for unemployed persons 30 and older. Effects of Unemployment on the Economy
Some of the effects of unemployment are immediate and obvious. When unemployment increases, both state and federal governments pay increased unemployment benefits. These are not inconsiderable. Even in February of 2017 —with the unemployment rate hovering around 5 percent —unemployment benefits that include food benefits and Medicaid totaled $2.96 billion for the month. Even more significant in the U.S. consumer economy are the chained consequences of these increased benefits, which require the government either to borrow money to pay these benefits, and by doing so, also deferring the costs into the future or reducing spending in other areas. This is a compensatory strategy, but it can make a bad economic situation worse. An historic 1967 paper on the relationship between unemployment and economic output by Yale economist Arthur Okun, concluded that even a 1 percent increase in unemployment reduced the U.S. GDP (Gross Domestic Product) by 2 percent, which has a multiplier effect of more than 100 percent. A 2017 paper issued by the St. Louis Fed on Okun's law — as it has come to be known — noted that this ratio "holds true 50 years later."