Negative aspects of a low unemployment rate in terms of micro- and macrostructures

Abstract

The article is an analysis of a low unemployment rate as a social fact which has become a desired state for all currently established economic and political systems. As a result, every-day media narratives usually ignore its negative aspects which should be included in a scientific reflection. Exploiting the findings, theories and notions developed in the area of sociology (e. g. ideas of Emile Durkheim or Erving Goffman), the author elaborates on most important consequences of keeping an unemployment rate low: positive for a structure but potentially harmful for an individual in the long term. These consequences concern microstructures as well as bigger groups and in the article are discussed in reference to several areas such as: functioning of individuals within and outside the system, an individual’s capability of resistance, a disappearance of traditional forms of care, malpractices and political manipulations, or a phenomenon of a total work taking over non-work activities.