dissertation about unemployment

ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Unemployment, employability and covid19: how the global socioeconomic shock challenged negative perceptions toward the less fortunate in the australian context.

• 1 Research School of Population Health, The Australian National University, Canberra, ACT, Australia
• 2 Institute of Child Protection Studies, The Australian Catholic University, Melbourne, VIC, Australia
• 3 Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research, The University of Melbourne, Melbourne, VIC, Australia

Unemployed benefit recipients are stigmatized and generally perceived negatively in terms of their personality characteristics and employability. The COVID19 economic shock led to rapid public policy responses across the globe to lessen the impact of mass unemployment, potentially shifting community perceptions of individuals who are out of work and rely on government income support. We used a repeated cross-sections design to study change in stigma tied to unemployment and benefit receipt in a pre-existing pre-COVID19 sample ( n = 260) and a sample collected during COVID19 pandemic ( n = 670) by using a vignette-based experiment. Participants rated attributes of characters who were described as being employed, working poor, unemployed or receiving unemployment benefits. The results show that compared to employed characters, unemployed characters were rated substantially less favorably at both time points on their employability and personality traits. The difference in perceptions of the employed and unemployed was, however, attenuated during COVID19 with benefit recipients perceived as more employable and more Conscientious than pre-pandemic. These results add to knowledge about the determinants of welfare stigma highlighting the impact of the global economic and health crisis on perception of others.

Introduction

The onset of COVID19 pandemic saw unemployment climb to the highest rate since the Great Depression in many regions globally 1 . Over just one month, from March to April 2020 unemployment rate in the United States increased from 4.4% to over 14.7% and in Australia the effective rate of unemployment increased from 5.4 to 11.7% ( Australian Bureau of Statistics, 2020 ) 2 . In Australia, a number of economic responses were rapidly introduced including a wage subsidy scheme (Jobkeeper) to enable employees to keep their employees connected to the workforce, one-off payments to many welfare recipients, and a doubling of the usual rate of the unemployment benefits (Jobseeker payment) through a new Coronavirus supplement payment. At the time of writing in July 2020, many countries, including Australia remain in the depths of a health and economic crisis.

A rich research literature from a range of disciplines has documented the pervasive negative community views toward those who are unemployed and receiving unemployment benefits, with the extent of this “welfare stigma” being particularly pronounced in countries with highly targeted benefit systems such as the United States and Australia ( Fiske et al., 2002 ; Baumberg, 2012 ; Contini and Richiardi, 2012 ; Schofield and Butterworth, 2015 ). The stigma and potential discrimination associated with unemployment and benefit receipt are known to have negative impacts on health, employability and equality (for meta-analyses, see Shahidi et al., 2016 ). In addition, the receipt of unemployment benefits co-occurs with other stigmatized characteristics such as poverty and unemployment ( Schofield and Butterworth, 2018a ). The changing context related to the COVID19 crisis provides a novel opportunity to better understand the determinants of stigmatizing perceptions of unemployment and benefit receipt.

Negative community attitudes and perceptions of benefit recipients are commonly explained by the concept of “deservingness” ( van Oorschot and Roosma, 2017 ). The unemployed are typically seen as less deserving of government support than other groups because they are more likely to be seen as responsible for their own plight, ungrateful for support, not in genuine need ( Petersen et al., 2011 ; van Oorschot and Roosma, 2017 ), and lacking reciprocity (i.e., seen as taking more than they have given – or will give – back to society; van Oorschot, 2000 ; Larsen, 2008 ; Petersen et al., 2011 ; Aarøe and Petersen, 2014 ). Given the economic shock associated with COVID19, unemployment and reliance on income support are less likely to seen as an outcome within the individuals control and may therefore amplify perceptions of deservingness. Prior work has shown that experimentally manipulating perceived control over circumstances does indeed change negative stereotypes ( Aarøe and Petersen, 2014 ).

A number of experimental paradigms have been used to investigate perceptions of “welfare recipients” and the “unemployed.” The stereotype content model (SCM; Fiske et al., 2002 ), for example, represents the stereotypes of social groups on two dimensions: warmth, relating to being friendly and well–intentioned (rather than ill–intentioned); and competence, relating to one’s capacity to pursue intentions ( Fiske et al., 2002 ). Using this model, the “unemployed” have been evaluated as low in warmth and competence across a variety of welfare regime types ( Fiske et al., 2002 ; Bye et al., 2014 ). The structure of stereotypes has also been studied using the Big Five personality dimensions ( Schofield and Butterworth, 2018b ; Schofield et al., 2019 ): Openness, Conscientiousness, Extraversion, Agreeableness, and Emotional Stability (for background on the Big Five see: Goldberg, 1993 ; Hogan et al., 1996 ; Saucier and Goldberg, 1996 ; McCrae and Terracciano, 2005 ; Srivastava, 2010 ; Chan et al., 2012 ; Löckenhoff et al., 2014 ). There are parallels between the Big Five and the SCM: warmth relating to the dimension of Agreeableness, and competence relating to Conscientiousness ( Digman, 1997 ; Ward et al., 2006 ; Cuddy et al., 2008 ; Abele et al., 2016 ) and these constructs have been found to predict employability and career success ( Barrick et al., 2001 ; Cuesta and Budría, 2017 ). Warmth and agreeableness have also been linked to the welfare-specific characteristics of deservingness ( Aarøe and Petersen, 2014 ).

The term “employability” has been previously defined as a set of achievements, skills and personal attributes that make a person more likely to gain employment and leading to success in their chosen career pathway ( Pegg et al., 2012 ; O’Leary, 2017 , 2019 ). While there are few studies examining perceptions of others, perceptions of one’s own employability have been recently studied in university students, jobseekers ( Atitsogbe et al., 2019 ) and currently employed workers ( Plomp et al., 2019 ; Yeves et al., 2019 ), consistently showing higher levels of perceived employability being linked to personal and job-related wellbeing as well as career success. Examining other’s perceptions of employability may be more relevant to understand factors impacting on actual employment outcomes. A majority of studies examining other’s perceptions of employability have focused on job specific skills study ( Lowden et al., 2011 ; Dhiman, 2012 ; Saad and Majid, 2014 ).

Building on this previous work, our own research has focused on the effects of unemployment by drawing on frameworks of Big Five, SCM and employability in pre-COVID19 samples ( Schofield and Butterworth, 2018b ; Schofield et al., 2019 ). Our studies consistently show that unemployed individuals receiving government payments are perceived as less employable (poorer “quality” workers and less desirable for employment) and less Conscientious. We found similar but weaker pattern related to Agreeableness, Emotional Stability, and the extent that a person is perceived as “uniquely human” ( Schofield et al., 2019 ). Further, we found that vignette characters described as currently employed but with a history of welfare receipt were indistinguishable from those described as employed and with no reference to benefit receipt ( Schofield et al., 2019 ). Findings such as this provide experimental evidence that welfare stigma is malleable and can be challenged by information inconsistent with negative stereotype ( Schofield and Butterworth, 2018b ; Schofield et al., 2019 ; see also Petersen et al., 2011 ).

The broad aim of the current study was to extend this previous work by examining the impact of COVID19 on person perceptions tied to employment and benefit recipient status. It repeats a pre-COVID19 study of an Australian general population sample in the COVID19 context, drawing on the same sampling frame, materials and study design to maximize comparability. The study design recognizes that the negative perceptions of benefit recipients may reflect a combination of difference sources of stigma: poverty, lack of work, and benefit receipt. Therefore, the original study used four different conditions to seek to differentiate these different sources: (1) Employed ; (2) Working poor ; (3) Unemployed ; and (4) Unemployed benefit recipient . Finally, for the COVID19 sample we added a novel fifth condition: (5) Unemployment benefit recipient also receiving the “Coronavirus” supplement . We except that the reference to a payment specifically applicable to the COVID19 context may lead to more favorable perceptions (more deserving) than the other unemployed and benefit receipt characters.

The study capitalizes on a major exogenous event, the COVID19 crisis, which we hypothesize will alter perceptions of deservingness by fundamentally challenging social identities and perceptions of one’s own vulnerability to unemployment. The study tests three hypotheses, and in doing so makes an important empirical and theoretical contribution to understanding how deservingness influences person perception, and understanding of the potential “real world” barriers experienced by people seeking employment in the COVID19 context.

Hypothesis 1

The pre-COVID19 assessment uses a subset of data from a pre-registered study, but this reuse of the data was not preregistered 3 . We hypothesize that, at Time 1 (pre-COVID19 assessment) we will find that employed characters will be rated more favorably than characters described as unemployed and receiving unemployment benefits, particularly on dimensions of Conscientiousness, Worker and Boss suitability. Moreover, we expect a gradient in perceptions across the four experimental conditions, from employed to working poor, to unemployed to unemployed receiving benefits and to show a similar trend for the other outcome measures included in the study.

Hypothesis 2

We hypothesize that the character in the unemployed condition(s) would be rated less negatively relative to the employed condition(s) at Time 2, compared to Time 1. We predict a two-way interaction between time and condition for the key measures (Conscientiousness, Worker and Boss suitability) and a similar trend on other outcomes.

Hypothesis 3

We expect that explicit reference to the unemployed benefit character receiving the “Coronavirus supplement” payment will increase the salience of the COVID19 context and lead to more positive ratings of this character relative to the standard unemployed benefit condition in the pre-COVID19 and COVID19 occasions.

Materials and Methods

Participants.

Two general population samples (pre-COVID19 and COVID19) were recruited from the same source: The Australian Online Research Unit (ORU) panel. The ORU is an online survey platform that provides access to a cohort of members of the general public who are interested in contributing to research. The ORU randomly selects potential participants who meet study eligibility criteria, and provides the participant with an incentive for their participation. The sample for the Time 1 (pre-COVID19) occasion was part of a larger study (768 participants) collected in November 2018. From this initial dataset, we were able to use data from 260 (50.1% female, M Age = 42.1 [16.7] years, range: 18–82) participants who were presented with the one vignette scenario that we could replicate at the time of the social restrictions applicable in the COVID19 context (i.e., the vignette character was not described as going out and visiting friends, as these behaviors were illegal at Time 2). The sample for Time 2 (COVID19) was collected in May–June 2020, at the height of the lock down measures in Australia and included 670 participants (40.5% female, M Age = 51.0 [15.8] years, range: 18–85). The two samples were broadly similar (see below), though the proportion of male participants at Time 2 was greater than at Time 1.

The pre-COVID assessment at Time 1 was restricted to those participants who completed the social-distancing consistent vignette in the first place to avoid potential order/context effects. This provided, on average, 65 respondents in each of the four experimental conditions. Using the results from our previous published studies as indicators of effect size ( Schofield and Butterworth, 2018b ; Schofield et al., 2019 ). Monte Carlo simulation was used to identify the Time 2 sample size that would provide 90% power to detect an interaction effect that represented a 50% decline in the difference between the two employment and two unemployment conditions on the three-key measures at the COVID occasion relative to the pre-COVID difference. This sample size of 135 per condition also provided between 60 and 90% power to detect a difference of a similar magnitude between the employed and unemployment benefit conditions across the two measurement occasions. Given previous evidence that the differences between employed and unemployed/welfare conditions is robust and large for Conscientiousness and Worker suitability ( Schofield and Butterworth, 2018b ), the current study is also adequately powered to detect the most replicable effects of unemployment and welfare on perceptions of a person’s character (even in the absence of the hypothesized interaction effect).

Materials and Procedure

The procedures were identical on both study occasions. Participants read a brief vignette that described a fictional character, and then rated the character on measures reflecting personality dimensions, their suitability as a worker or boss, morality, warmth, and competence, and the participant’s beliefs the character should feel guilt and shame, or feel angry and disgusted. At Time 1 (pre-COVID19 context) participants then repeated this process with a second vignette, but we do not consider data from the second vignette.

Manipulation

The key experimental conditions were operationalized by a single sentence embedded within the vignette that was randomly allocated to different participants (employed: “S/he is currently working as a sales assistant in a large department store”; working poor: “S/he is currently working as a sales assistant, on a minimum-wage, in a large department store”; unemployed: “S/he is currently unemployed”; and receipt of unemployment benefits: “S/he is currently unemployed, and is receiving government benefits due to his/her unemployment”). The four experimental conditions were identical at both time points. At Time 2, an additional COVID19-specific condition was included (to maximize the salience of the COVID19 context): “S/he is currently unemployed and is receiving government benefits, including the Coronavirus supplement, due to his/her unemployment.”

All three study conditions will imply poverty/low income. In Australia, few minimum-wage jobs are supplemented by tips, and so a minimum-wage job indicates a level of relative poverty. A full-time worker in a minimum wage job is in the bottom quartile of income earners ( Australian Bureau of Statistics, 2017 ). Prior to the COVID19 crisis and the increase in payment level, a single person with no dependents receiving unemployment benefits received approximately 75% of the minimum-wage in cash assistance. During COVID19 and at the time of the data collection, the rate of pay exceeds the minimum-wage.

Several characteristics of the vignette character, including age and relationship status, were balanced across study participants. Age was specified as either 27 or 35 years, relationship status was either “single” or “lives with his/her partner.” The character’s gender was also varied and names were stereotypically White.

For Time 1, manipulated characteristics yielded 32 unique vignettes, comprised of four key experimental conditions (employed, working poor, unemployed, and unemployment benefits) × 2 ages × 2 genders × 2 relationship statuses. For Time 2, manipulated characteristics yielded 40 unique vignettes, comprised of five key experimental conditions (employed, working poor, unemployed, unemployment benefits, and unemployed + coronavirus supplement) × 2 ages × 2 genders × 2 relationship statuses. The vignette template construction is presented in Figure 1 including each component of the vignette that was randomly varied.

Figure 1. Outline of vignette construction in 4 parts. Bullet pointed options replace the underlined text, with gendered pronouns in each option selected to match character name.

Comprehension Checks

In both studies, participants were required to affirm consent after debriefing or had their data deleted. Participant comprehension of the vignettes was checked via three free-response comprehension questions about the character’s age and weekend activities. Participants who did not answer any questions correctly were not able to continue the study.

Outcome Measures

Personality, employability (suitability as a worker or boss), communion and agency, cognitive and emotional moral judgments, and dehumanization were included as the study outcomes. While not all personality or character dimension measures can be considered as negative or positive, higher scores were used in the study to indicate more “favorable” perceptions by the participants of the characters.

Personality

The Ten Item Personality Inventory was used to measure the Big Five ( Gosling et al., 2003 ) and adapted to other–oriented wording (i.e., “I felt like the person in the story was…”) ( Schofield et al., 2019 ). Two items measured each trait via two paired attributes. One item contained positive attributes and one contained negative attributes. Participants indicated the extent to which “I think [Name] is [attributes]” from 1 (strongly disagree) to 7 (strongly agree). The order of these 10 items was randomized. Agreeableness (α = 0.54) was assessed from “sympathetic, warm” and “critical, quarrelsome” (reversed); Extraversion (α = 0.50) was assessed from “extraverted, enthusiastic” and “reserved, quiet” (reversed); Conscientiousness (α = 0.76) was assessed from “dependable, self-disciplined” and “disorganized, careless” (reversed); Openness to experience (α = 0.36) was assessed from “open to new experiences, complex” and “conventional, uncreative” (reversed); Emotional stability (α = 0.65) was assessed from “calm, emotionally stable.” and “anxious, easily upset” (reversed). The order of these 10 items was randomized.

Employability

Single item measures: “I think [Name] would be a good worker” ( Worker suitability ) and “I think [Name] would be a good boss” ( Boss suitability ) were rated on the same scale as the personality measure. The order of these two items was randomized. Higher scores indicated better employability.

Communion and Agency

Communion and agency was assessed using Bocian et al. (2018) adaptation of Abele et al. (2016) scale that measures the fundamental dimensions of communion and agency using two-subscales for each dimension. The morality and warmth subscales are seen as measures of communion (referred to as warmth in SCM; Fiske, 2018 ); while the competence and assertiveness subscales measure agency (what Fiske refers to as competence in SCM; Fiske, 2018 ). This subscale structure has been identified in multiple samples. Participants indicated the extent to which “I think [Name] [attributes]” from 1 (not at all) to 5 (very much so). Morality (α = 0.92) was measured with six items, e.g., “is just,” “is fair”; Warmth (α = 0.96) with six items, e.g., “is caring,” “is empathetic”; Competence (α = 0.90) with five items, e.g., “is efficient,” “is capable”; and Assertiveness (α = 0.83) with six items, e.g., “is self-confident,” “stands up well under pressure.” These items were presented in a random order.

Dehumanization

Dehumanization was measured with a composite scale of two-items drawn from Bastian et al. (2013) . Based on prior research, we measured dehumanization with two items: “I think [Name] is mechanical and cold, like a robot” and “I think [Name] lacked self-restraint, like an animal” order of these two items was randomized. We reverse coded the two items for the analyses for consistency for the other variables, so that higher scores were indicative of more favorable perceptions.

Moral Emotions

Moral emotions were measured by four items that asked about emotional responses to the character that were framed as self-condemning or other-condemning ( Haidt, 2003 ; Giner-Sorolla and Espinosa, 2011 ). Two other-condemning items asked the participant about their own emotional response to the character in the vignette (Anger: “[Name]’s behavior makes me angry”; Disgust: “I think [Name] is someone who makes me feel disgusted,” α = 0.92). The two self-condemning items asked about the character’s emotional response (Guilt: “[Name] should feel guilty about [his/her] behavior”; Shame: “I think [Name] should feel ashamed of [him/her]self”; α = 0.95). We reverse coded the two scales to ensure consistency with other variables, with higher scores indicative of more favorable perceptions.

Analytical Strategy

With the exception of the Moral emotion (and Communion and Agency) scales that are new to this study and the previously tested Openness to Experience, our previous research has demonstrated differences between the ratings of employed and unemployed characters on the included outcome measures ( Schofield and Butterworth, 2018b ; Schofield et al., 2019 ). We undertake the analysis using a four-step process. We use mixed-effects multi-level models, with the 14 outcome measures nested within participants, and predicted by fixed (between-person) terms representing the experimental “Condition,” “Time” (pre-/COVID19) and their interaction, and controlling for measure differences and allowing for random effects at the participant level: i) We initially assessed the effect of condition in the pre-COVID19 occasion to establish the baseline pattern of results; ii) we then evaluated the interaction term and, specifically, the extent to which the baseline difference observed between employment and unemployment conditions is attenuated at Time 2 (COVID19 occasion); iii) we tested the three-way interaction between condition, occasion and measure to assess whether this two-way interaction varies across the outcome measures; and if significant iv) repeated the modeling approach using separate linear regression models for each outcome measure. Our initial model contrasts the two employed (employed and working poor) and unemployed (unemployed and benefit receipt) conditions. The second model examines the four separate vignette conditions separately, differentiating between unemployed and unemployed benefit conditions. Finally, we contrast the three unemployment benefit conditions: (1) unemployment benefit recipients at Time 1; (2) unemployment benefit recipients at Time 2; and (3) unemployment benefit recipients receiving the Coronavirus payment at Time 2. For all models, we consider unadjusted and adjusted results (controlling for participant demographics). To address a potential bias from gender differences between samples, post-stratification weights were calculated for the COVID19 sample to reflecting the gender by age distribution of the pre-COVID19 sample. All models were weighted.

The two samples from Time 1 (pre-COVID19) and Time 2 (COVID19) were comparable on all demographic variables, except for gender (χ 2 [1, 923] = 7.04, p < 0.001) and employment (χ 2 [1, 910] = 27.66, p < 0.001): The gender distribution was more balanced at Time 1 with 49.8% of males, compared to 59.5% of males at Time 2. There was also a significant increase in unemployment with 20.9% of Time 1 participants out of work compared to 39.3% of the Time 2 participants. This was likely reflective of the employment rate nearly doubling in Australia during COVID19 crisis. Bivariate correlations showed significant positive correlations between all 14 outcomes ( p ’s < 0.001), except for Extraversion that was only positively correlated with Emotional Stability, boss suitability, warmth, assertiveness, and competence ( p’ s < 0.05).

Contrasting Employed and Unemployed Characters

The results, both adjusted and unadjusted, from the initial overall multilevel model using a binary indicator of whether vignette characters were employed (those in the employed or working poor conditions) or unemployed (unemployed or welfare) and testing the interaction between vignette Condition and Time (pre-COVID19 vs COVID19) are presented in the Supplementary Table S1 . The adjusted results (holding participant age, gender, employment, and education constant) indicated that the unemployed characters were rated lower than the employed characters at Time 1 ( b = −0.57). This difference in the ratings of employed and unemployed characters was reduced in the COVID19 assessment at Time 2, declining from 0.57 to 0.26, across all the outcome measures. The addition of the three-way interaction between Condition, Time and outcome measure significantly improved overall model fit, χ 2 (52) = 482.94, p < 0.001, indicating the interaction between Condition and Time varied over measures.

A series of separate regression models considering each outcome separately (see Supplementary Table S2 ) showed a significant effect of Condition (employment rated higher than unemployment) at Time 1 (pre-COVID) for all outcomes except Openness and Extraversion. The lower ratings for unemployed relative to employed characters were significantly moderated at Time 2 on the Competence, Worker and Boss suitability, and Guilt/Shame outcomes ( p’ s < 0.05).

COVID19 and Perceptions of Unemployment Benefit Recipients

The next set of analyses consider the four separate vignette conditions, differentiating between the unemployed and unemployed benefit recipient conditions. The overall mixed-effects multilevel model incorporating the four distinct vignette conditions provided evidence of significant effects for Condition and Condition by Time in both adjusted and unadjusted models. The result for the adjusted model ( Table 1 ), averaged across the various outcomes, replicated the previous finding of a difference in ratings of employed and unemployed characters at Time 1 (pre-COVID19): relative to the employed condition, there was no difference in ratings of the working poor, but the unemployed and the unemployed benefit recipient characters were rated less favorably. There was some evidence of a gradient across the unemployed characters: the average rating of the unemployed condition was higher than the unemployed benefit condition, though this difference was not statistically significant. In the presence of the interaction effect, the non-significant effect of Time shows that, averaged across all the outcome measures, there was no difference in the rating of the characters in the employed condition on the pre-COVID19 and COVID19 occasions. We tested for the effect of sociodemographic characteristics as covariates in the adjusted models (employment and benefit receipt status, education, age, and gender) but found no main effects of any of the covariates except for gender: females tended to rate characters higher ( b = 0.13, 95% CI [0.04, 0.21]) compared to males. Testing the heterogeneity of these patterns across outcomes via the inclusion of a three-way interaction between vignette condition, occasion and measure significantly improved overall model fit, χ 2 (104) = 533.40, p < 0.001, prompting analysis of each outcome separately.

Table 1. Adjusted fixed effects estimates of outcomes as a function of interactions between condition and time.

The separate linear regressions for each outcome measure ( Supplementary Table S3 ) show that ratings of unemployed benefit recipients at the Time 1 (pre-COVID19) were significantly lower than the employed characters for all outcomes except Openness and Extraversion. Statistically significant Condition by Time terms indicated that the unemployed benefit effect was moderated at Time 2 (COVID19) for the three key outcome measures identified in previous research (Conscientiousness, Worker and Boss suitability) and for the measure of Guilt and Shame. Figure 2 depicts this interaction for these four outcomes. These occurred in two profiles. For Conscientiousness, Worker and Boss suitability, COVID19 attenuated the negative perceptions of unemployed relative to employed characters, providing support for Hypothesis 2. By contrast, COVID19 has induced a new difference, such that participants thought employed characters should feel higher levels Guilt and Shame at Time 2, compared to Time 1. While the “working poor” condition was not central to the COVID19 hypotheses, we note that we found no evidence that ratings of these characters on any outcome differed from the standard employed character, or that this difference was changed in assessment at Time 2 (COVID19 occasion).

Figure 2. Interaction effect of Time (COVID19) by Condition marginal mean ratings on four outcomes: Conscientiousness, Worker suitability, Boss suitability, and Guilt and Shame (reversed).

The Impact of COVID19 on Perceptions of Unemployment Benefit-Recipients

The inclusion of the fifth COVID19-specific unemployment benefit condition did not generate more positive (or different) ratings than the standard unemployment benefit condition. Overall mixed-effects multilevel models, both adjusted and unadjusted, indicated that participants in the Coronavirus supplement condition (adjusted model: b = 0.26, 95% CI [0.06, 0.45]) and the general unemployed benefit recipient condition at Time 2 (adjusted model: b = 0.28, 95% CI [0.08, 0.48]) were both rated more favorably in comparison to unemployed benefit recipients at Time 1. There was no difference between these two Time 2 benefit recipient groups ( b = 0.03, 95% CI [−0.12, 0.19]). These results did not support hypothesis 3.

Previous research has demonstrated that people who are unemployed, and particularly those receiving unemployment benefits, are perceived more negatively and less employable than those who are employed. However, the economic shock associated with the COVID19 crisis is likely to have challenged people’s sense of their own vulnerability and risk of unemployment, and altered their perceptions of those who are unemployed and receiving government support. The broad aim of the current study was to examine the potential effect of this crisis on person perceptions tied to employment and benefit recipient status. We did this by presenting brief vignettes describing fictional characters, manipulating key experimental conditions related to employment status, and asking study participants to rate the characters’ personality and capability. We contrasted results from two cross-sectional general population samples collected before and during the COVID19 crisis.

The pre-COVID19 assessment replicated our previous findings (e.g., Schofield and Butterworth, 2018b ) showing that employed characters are perceived more favorably than those who were unemployed and receiving government benefits on measures of Conscientiousness and suitability as a worker. These findings supported Hypothesis 1. In comparison, the assessment conducted during the COVID19 crisis showed that unemployed and employed characters were viewed more similarly on these same key measures, with a significant interaction effect providing support for Hypothesis 2. Our third hypothesis, suggesting that n reference to the Coronavirus Supplement (an additional form of income support introduced during the pandemic) would enhance ratings of unemployed benefit recipients at the second assessment occasion, was not supported. We found that benefit recipients at Time 2 were rated more favorably than the benefit group at Time 1, irrespective of whether this COVID19-specific payment was referenced. This suggests the broader context in which the study was conducted was responsible for the change in perceptions.

We sampled participants from the same population, used identical experimental procedures, and found no difference over time in the ratings of employed characters on the key outcome measures of employability (Worker and Boss suitability) and Conscientiousness. The more favorable ratings of unemployed and benefit receiving characters at Time 2 is likely to reflect how the exogenous economic shock brought about by the COVID19 crisis challenged social identities and the stereotypes held of others 4 . The widespread impact and uncontrollable nature of this event are inconsistent with pre-COVID19 views that attribute ill-intent to those receiving to unemployment benefits ( Fiske et al., 2002 ; Baumberg, 2012 ; Contini and Richiardi, 2012 ; Bye et al., 2014 ). We suggest the changing context altered perceptions of the “deservingness” of people who are unemployed as unemployment in the context of COVID19 is less indicative personal failings or a result of one’s “own doing” ( Petersen et al., 2011 ; van Oorschot and Roosma, 2017 ). It is important to recognize, however, that the negative perceptions of unemployed benefit recipients were attenuated in the COVID19 assessment, but they continued to be rated less favorably than those who were employed on the key outcome measures.

In contrast to our findings on the key measures of employability and Conscientiousness, the previous and current research is less conclusive for the other outcome measures. The current study showed a broadly consistent gradient in the perception of employed and unemployed characters for all outcome measures apart from Openness and Extraversion. Findings on these other measures have been weaker and inconsistent across previous studies ( Schofield and Butterworth, 2018b ; Schofield et al., 2019 ), and the current experiment was not designed with sufficient power to demonstrate interaction effects for these measures. There was, however, one measure that showed significant divergence from the expected profile of results. A significant interaction term suggested that study participants at the Time 2 (COVID19) assessment reported that the employed characters should feel greater levels of Guilt and Shame than those who participated in the pre-COVID19 assessment. In contrast, there was consistency in the ratings of unemployed characters on this measure across the two assessment occasions. While not predicted, these results are also interpretable in the context of the pervasive job loss that accompanied the COVID19 crisis. Haller et al. (2020) , for example, argue that the highly distressing, morally difficult, and cumulative nature of COVID19 related stressors presents a perfect storm to result in a guilt and shame responses. The context of mass job losses may leave “surviving” workers feeling increasingly guilty.

The main findings of the current study are consistent with previous experimental studies that show that the stereotypes of unemployed benefit recipients are malleable ( Aarøe, 2011 ; Schofield et al., 2019 ). These previous studies, however, have demonstrated malleability by providing additional information about unemployed individuals that was inconsistent with the unemployed benefit recipient stereotype (e.g., the external causes of their unemployment). In contrast, the current study did not change how the vignette characters were presented or the experimental procedures. Rather, we assessed how the changing context in which study participants were living had altered their perceptions: suggesting the experience of COVID19 altered stereotypical views held by study participants rather than presenting information about the character that would challenge the applicability of the benefit recipient stereotype in this instance.

Perceptions and stereotypes of benefit recipients can be reinforced (and potentially generated) by government actions and policies. Structural stigma can be used as a policy tool to stigmatize benefit receipt as a strategy to reduce dependence on income support and encourage workforce participation ( Moffitt, 1983 ; Stuber and Schlesinger, 2006 ; Baumberg, 2012 ; Contini and Richiardi, 2012 ; Garthwaite, 2013 ). In the current instance, however, the Australian government acted quickly to provide greater support to Australians who lost their jobs (e.g., doubling the rate of payment, removing mandatory reporting to the welfare services) and this may have reduced the stigmatizing structural features of the income support system and contributed to the changed perceptions of benefit recipients identified in this study.

Limitations

The current study took advantage of a natural experimental design and replicated a pre-COVID19 study during the COVID19 crisis. The study is limited by the relatively small sample size at Time 1, which was not designed for current purposes but part of another study. We were not able to include most of the participants from the original Time 1 study as most of the experimental conditions described activities that were illegal/inconsistent with recommend activity at the time of the COVID19 lockdown and social restriction measures. Finally, the data collection for the current study occurred very quickly after the initial and sudden COVID19 lockdowns and economic shock, which is both a strength and a limitation for the generalizability of the results. The pattern of results using the same sampling frame offers compelling support for our hypothesis that the shared economic shock and increase in unemployment attenuates stigmatizing community attitudes toward those who need to receive benefits. Our current conclusions would be further strengthened by a subsequent replication when the public health and economic crises stabilize, to test whether pre-COVID perceptions return.

The current study provides novel information about impact of the COVID19 health and economic crisis, and the impact of the corresponding policy responses on community perceptions. This novel study shows how community perceptions of employment and benefit recipient status have been altered by the COVID19 pandemic. These results add to knowledge about the determinants of welfare stigma, particularly relating to employability, highlighting societal level contextual factors.

Data Availability Statement

The raw data supporting the conclusions of this article will be made available by the authors, without undue reservation.

Ethics Statement

The studies involving human participants were reviewed and approved by Melbourne University Human Research Ethics Committee. The patients/participants provided their written informed consent to participate in this study.

Author Contributions

AS led the review conceptualized by TS and PB. AS and PB conducted the analyses and wrote up the review. TS led the data collection, reviewed and edited the manuscript, and provided data management support. This manuscript is based on previous extensive work by TS and PB on stereotypes toward the unemployed and welfare benefit recipients. All authors contributed to the article and approved the submitted version.

This study was funded by the Australian Research Council (ARC) grant # DP16014178.

Conflict of Interest

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Supplementary Material

The Supplementary Material for this article can be found online at: https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2020.594837/full#supplementary-material

• ^ https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/UNRATE
• ^ The Australian figure includes individuals working zero hours who had “no work, not enough work available or were stood down.” The US Bureau of Labor Statistics noted that some people on temporary layoff were not classified as such and the unemployment rate could have been almost 5 percentage points higher.
• ^ https://osf.io/wknb6
• ^ https://pursuit.unimelb.edu.au/articles/our-changing-identities-under-covid-19

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Keywords : COVID19, employability, personality, Big Five, public policy, unemployment

Citation: Suomi A, Schofield TP and Butterworth P (2020) Unemployment, Employability and COVID19: How the Global Socioeconomic Shock Challenged Negative Perceptions Toward the Less Fortunate in the Australian Context. Front. Psychol. 11:594837. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2020.594837

Received: 14 August 2020; Accepted: 22 September 2020; Published: 15 October 2020.

Reviewed by:

Copyright © 2020 Suomi, Schofield and Butterworth. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY) . The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

*Correspondence: Aino Suomi, [email protected]

Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.

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Unemployment in the time of COVID-19: A research agenda ☆

David l. blustein.

a Boston College, United States of America

b University of Florida, United States of America

Joaquim A. Ferreira

c University of Coimbra, Portugal

Valerie Cohen-Scali

d Conservatoire National des Arts et Métiers, France

Rachel Gali Cinamon

e University of Tel Aviv, Israel

Blake A. Allan

f Purdue University, United States of America

This essay represents the collective vision of a group of scholars in vocational psychology who have sought to develop a research agenda in response to the massive global unemployment crisis that has been evoked by the COVID-19 pandemic. The research agenda includes exploring how this unemployment crisis may differ from previous unemployment periods; examining the nature of the grief evoked by the parallel loss of work and loss of life; recognizing and addressing the privilege of scholars; examining the inequality that underlies the disproportionate impact of the crisis on poor and working class communities; developing a framework for evidence-based interventions for unemployed individuals; and examining the work-family interface and unemployment among youth.

This essay reflects the collective input from members of a community of vocational psychologists who share an interest in psychology of working theory and related social-justice oriented perspectives ( Blustein, 2019 ; Duffy, Blustein, Diemer, & Autin, 2016 ). Each author of this article has contributed a specific set of ideas, which individually and collectively reflect some promising directions for research about the rampant unemployment that sadly defines this COVID-19 crisis.

Our efforts cohere along several assumptions and values. First, we share a view that unemployment has devastating effects on the psychological, economic, and social well-being of individuals and communities ( Blustein, 2019 ). Second, we seek to build on the exemplary research on unemployment that has documented its impact on mental health ( Paul & Moser, 2009 ; Wanberg, 2012 ) and its equally pernicious impact on communities ( International Labor Organization, 2020b ). Third, we hope that this contribution charts a research agenda that will inform practice at individual and systemic levels to support and sustain people as they grapple with the daunting challenge of seeking work and recovering from the psychological and vocational fallout of this pandemic.

The advent of this period of global unemployment is connected causally and temporally to considerable loss of life and illness, which is creating an intense level of grief and trauma for many people. The first step in developing a research agenda for unemployment during the COVID-19 era is to describe the nature of this process of loss in so many critical sectors of life. A major research question, therefore, is to what extent does this unemployment crisis vary from previous bouts of unemployment which were linked to economic fluctuations? In addition, exploring the role of loss and trauma during this crisis should yield research findings that can inform psychological and vocational interventions as well as policy guidance to support people via civic institutions and communities.

1. Recognizing and channeling our own privilege

In Joe Pinker's (2020) Atlantic essay entitled, “ The Pandemic Will Cleave America in Two”, he highlights two distinct experiences of the pandemic. One is an experience felt by those with high levels of education in stable jobs where telework is possible. Lives are now more stressful, work has been turned upside down, childcare is challenging, and leaving the house feels ominous. The other is an experience felt by the rest of the working public – those who cannot work from home and thus are putting themselves at risk every day, whose jobs have been either lost or downsized, and who are wondering not only if they will catch the virus but whether they have the means and resources to survive. As psychologists and professors, the vast majority of “us” (those writing this essay and those reading it) are extremely fortunate to be in the first group. The pandemic has only served to exacerbate the extent of this privilege.

Given our relative position of power, what are ways we can change our research to be more meaningful and impactful to those outside of our bubble? We propose that the recent work on radical healing in communities of color – where the research is often done in collaboration with the participants and building participant agency is an explicit goal - can inform our path forward ( French et al., 2020 ; Mosley et al., 2020 ). Work has always been a domain where individuals experience distress and marginalization. However, in the current pandemic and into the unforeseeable future, this will only exponentially increase. Sure, we can do surveys about people's experiences and provide incentives for their time. And of course qualitative work will allow us to more directly connect with participants and hear their voices. But what is most needed is research where participants receive tangible benefits to improve their work lives. We, as privileged scholars, need to think about how we can use our expertise in studying work to infuse our studies with real world benefits. We see this as occurring on a spectrum in terms of scholars' time and resources available – from information sharing about resources to providing job-seeking or work-related interventions. In our view, now is the time to truly commit to using work-related research not just as a way to build scholarly knowledge, but as a way to improve lives.

2. Inequality and unemployment

Focusing research efforts on real-world benefits means acknowledging how the COVID-19 pandemic has exposed and exacerbated existing inequities in the labor market. Millions of workers in the U.S. have precarious jobs that are uncertain in the continuity and amount of work, do not pay a living wage, do not give workers power to advocate for their needs, or do not provide access to basic benefits ( Kalleberg, 2009 ). Power and privilege are major determinants of who is at risk for precarious work, with historically marginalized communities being disproportionately vulnerable to these job conditions ( International Labor Organization, 2020a ). In turn, people with precarious work experience chronic stress and uncertainty, putting them at risk for mental health, physical, and relational problems ( Blustein, 2019 ). These risk factors may further worsen the effects of the COVID-19 crisis while simultaneously exposing inequities that existed before the crises.

The COVID-19 pandemic is an opportunity for researchers to define and describe how precarious work creates physical, relational, behavioral, psychological, economic, and emotional vulnerabilities that worsen outcomes from crises like the COVID-19 pandemic (e.g., unemployment, psychological distress). For example, longitudinal studies can examine how precarious work creates vulnerabilities in different domains, which in turn predict outcomes of the COVID-19 pandemic, including unemployment and mental health. This may include larger scale cohort studies that examine how the COVID-19 crisis has created a generation of precarity among people undergoing the school-to-work transition. Researchers can also study how governmental and nonprofit interventions reduce vulnerability and buffer the relations between precarious work and various outcomes. For example, direct cash assistance is becoming increasingly popular as an efficient way to help people in poverty ( Evans & Popova, 2014 ). However, dominant social narratives (e.g., the myth of meritocracy, the American dream) blame people with poor quality work for their situations. Psychologists have a critical role in (a) documenting false social narratives, (b) studying interventions to provide accurate counter narratives (e.g., people who receive direct cash assistance do not spend money on alcohol or drugs; most people who need assistance are working; Evans & Popova, 2014 ), and (c) studying how to effectively change attitudes among the public to create support for effective interventions.

3. Work-family interface

Investigating the work-family interface during unemployment may appear contradictory. It can be argued that because there is no paid work, the work-family interface does not exist. But ‘work’ is an integral part of people's lives, even during unemployment; for example, working to find a job is a daunting task that is usually done from home. Thus, the work-family interface also exists during unemployment, but our knowledge about this is limited. Our current knowledge on the work-family interface primarily focuses on people who work full-time and usually among working parents with young children ( Cinamon, 2018 ). As such, focusing on the work-family interface during periods of unemployment represents a needed research agenda that can inform public policy and scholarship in work-family relationships.

The rise in unemployment due to COVID-19 relates not only to the unemployed, but also to other family members. Important research questions to consider are how are positive and negative feelings and thoughts about the absence of work conveyed and co-constructed by family members? What family behaviors and dynamics promote and serve as social capital for the unemployed and for the other members of the family? Do job search behaviors serve as a form of modeling for other family members? What are the experiences of unemployed spouses and children, and how do these experiences shape their own career development? These issues can be discerned among unemployed people of different ages, communities, and cultures.

Several research methods can promote this agenda. Participatory action research can enable vocational researchers to be proactive and involved in increasing social solidarity. This approach requires mutual collaboration between the researcher and families wherein one of the parents is unemployed. By giving them voice to describe their experiences, thoughts, ideas, and suggested solutions, we affirm inclusion of the individuals living through the new reality, thereby conveying respect and acknowledgment. At the same time, we can bring ideas, knowledge, and social connections to the families that can serve as social capital. In addition, longitudinal quantitative studies among unemployed families that explore some of the issues noted above would be important as a means of exploring how the new unemployment experience is shaping both work and relationships. We also advocate that meaningful incentives be offered to participants in all of these studies, such as online job search workshops and career education interventions for adolescents.

4. Strategies for dealing with unemployment in the pandemic of 2020

Forward-looking governments and organizations (such as universities) should begin thinking about how to deal with the immediate and long-term consequences of the economic crisis created by COVID-19, especially in the area of unemployment. Creating meaningful interventions to assist the newly unemployed will be difficult because of the unprecedented number of individuals and families that are affected and because of the diverse contextual and personal factors that characterize this new population. Because of this diversity of contextual and personal factors, different interventions will be required for different patterns of individual/contextual characteristics ( Ferreira et al., 2015 ).

In broad outline, a research program to address the diversity of issues identified above could be envisioned to consist of several distinct phases: First, it would be necessary to carefully assess the external circumstances of the unemployed individual's job loss, including the probability of re-employment, financial condition, family composition, and living conditions, among others. Second, an assessment should be made of the individual's strengths and growth edges, particularly as they impact the current situation. These assessments could be performed via paper or online questionnaire. Based on these initial assessments, the third phase would involve using statistical analyses such as cluster analysis to form distinct groups of unemployed individuals, perhaps based in part on the probability of re-employment following the pandemic. The fourth phase would focus on determining the types (and/or combinations) of intervention most appropriate for each group (e.g., temporary government assistance; emotional support counseling; retraining for better future job prospects; relocation, etc.). Because access to specific types of assistance is frequently a serious challenge, especially for underprivileged individuals, the fifth phase should emphasize facilitating individuals' access to the specific assistance they need. Finally, the sixth phase of research should evaluate the efficacy of this approach, although designing such a large research program in a crisis situation requires ongoing process evaluation throughout the design and implementation stages of the research program.

5. Unemployment among youth

As reflected in a recent International Labor Organization (2020a) report on the impact of the COVID-19 crisis, youth were already vulnerable within the workforce prior to the crisis; the recent advent of massive job losses and growing precarity of work is having particularly painful impacts on young people across the globe. The COVID-19 economic crisis with vast increases in unemployment (and competition between workers) and the probable growth of digitalization may result in a major dislocation of young workers from the labor market for some time ( International Labor Organization, 2020b ). To provide knowledge to meet this daunting challenge, researchers should develop an agenda focusing on two major components—the first is a participatory mode of understanding the experience of youth and the second is the development of evidence-based interventions that are derived from this research process.

The data gathering aspect of this research agenda optimally should focus on understanding unemployed youths' perception of their situation (opportunities, barriers, fears, and intentions) and of the new labor market. We propose that research is needed to unpack how youth are constructing this new reality, their relationship to society, to others, and to the world. This crisis may have changed their priorities, the meaning of work, and their lifestyle. For example, this crisis may have led to an awareness of the necessity of developing more environmentally responsible behaviors ( Cohen-Scali et al., 2018 ). These new life styles could result in skills development and increased autonomy and adaptability among young people. In addition, the focus on understanding youths' experience, which can encompass qualitative and quantitative methods, should also include explorations of shifts in youths' sense of identity and purpose, which may be dramatically affected by the crisis. The young people who are without work should be involved at each step of the research process in order to improve their capacities, knowledge, and agency and to ensure that the research is designed from their lived experiences.

Building on these research efforts, interventions may be designed that include individual counseling strategies as well as systemic interventions based on analyses of the communities in which young people are involved (for example, families and couples and not only individuals). In addition, we need more research to learn about the process of collective empowerment and critical consciousness development, which can inform youths' advocacy efforts and serve as a buffer in their career development ( Blustein, 2019 ).

6. Conclusion

The research ideas presented in this contribution have been offered as a means of stimulating needed scholarship, program development, and advocacy efforts. Naturally, these ideas are not intended to be exhaustive. We hope that readers will find ideas and perspectives in our essay that may stimulate a broad-based research agenda for our field, optimally informing transformative interventions and needed policy interventions for individuals and communities suffering from the loss of work (and loss of loved ones in this pandemic). A common thread in our essay is the recommendation that research efforts be constructed from the lived experiences of the individuals who are now out of work. As we have noted here, their experiences may not be similar to other periods of extensive unemployment, which argues strongly for experience-near, participatory research. We are also advocating for the use of rigorous quantitative methods to develop new understanding of the nature of unemployment during this period and to develop and assess interventions. In addition, we would like to advocate that the collective scholarly efforts of our community include incentives and outcomes that support unemployed individuals. For example, online workshops and resources can be shared with participants and other communities as a way of not just dignifying their participation, but of also providing tangible support during a crisis.

In closing, we are humbled by the stories that we hear from our communities about the job loss of this pandemic period. Our authorship team shares a deep commitment to research that matters; in this context, we believe that our work now matters more than we can imagine.

☆ The order of authorship for authors two through six was determined randomly; each of these authors contributed equally to this paper.

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Unemployment, Social Vulnerability, and Health in Europe pp 167–183 Cite as

The Effects of Youth Unemployment: A Review of the Literature

• V. L. Damstrup  

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Part of the book series: Health Systems Research ((HEALTH))

Young adults and teenagers are engaged in work on a much smaller scale than older workers. Young people are engaged less in work because they are still in school, or they are involved in leisure activities. Some, on the other hand, would like to work, but find it difficult obtaining employment. The transition from school to employment is a process that involves searching and changing jobs before deciding on a more or less permanent employment. Today, more than ever, youths have a lower rate of employment, hence there has been much concern about the youth labor market.

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• Young Person
• School Dropout

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Damstrup, V.L. (1987). The Effects of Youth Unemployment: A Review of the Literature. In: Schwefel, D., Svensson, PG., Zöllner, H. (eds) Unemployment, Social Vulnerability, and Health in Europe. Health Systems Research. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-83112-6_12

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Turon, Helene. "Unemployment dynamics : duration dependence, unemployment flows, equilibrium and disequilibrium." Thesis, University of Bristol, 2001. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.390798.

Bjørnstad, Roger. "Institutions, markets and unemployment : understanding unemployment in the modern economy /." Oslo : Unipub forlag, 2005. http://www.gbv.de/dms/zbw/493510753.pdf.

Mahendran, Kesini. "Gainful unemployment : using a dialogical psychology to intervene in unemployment." Thesis, University of Stirling, 2003. http://hdl.handle.net/1893/1945.

Boheim, Rene. "Essays on unemployment." Thesis, University of Essex, 2001. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.391390.

Lundqvist, Fredrik. "Unemployment and Crime." Thesis, Södertörns högskola, Nationalekonomi, 2018. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:sh:diva-36466.

Lang, Dany. "Hysteresis in unemployment." Aix-Marseille 2, 2004. http://www.theses.fr/2004AIX24009.

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Pierre, Gaëlle. "The economic and social consequences of unemployment and long-term unemployment." Thesis, University of Warwick, 2000. http://wrap.warwick.ac.uk/4028/.

Symes, Caylynne Elizabeth. "Problematizing unemployment : the competing representations of unemployment and the implications thereof." Thesis, Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2013. http://hdl.handle.net/10019.1/79921.

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Wang, Bingsong. "Essays on unemployment volatility." Thesis, University of Bath, 2016. https://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.698960.

Brown, David Walton. "Essays in unemployment insurance." Thesis, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2010. http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/62399.

Katz, Lawrence F. "Worker mobility and unemployment." Thesis, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1985. https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/128939.

Haefke, Christian. "The European unemployment puzzle /." Diss., Connect to a 24 p. preview or request complete full text in PDF format. Access restricted to UC campuses, 2000. http://wwwlib.umi.com/cr/ucsd/fullcit?p9975888.

Gerhard, Castro de Britto Diogo <1987&gt. "Essays on Unemployment Insurance." Doctoral thesis, Alma Mater Studiorum - Università di Bologna, 2015. http://amsdottorato.unibo.it/7249/1/Britto_Diogo_tesi.pdf.

Gerhard, Castro de Britto Diogo <1987&gt. "Essays on Unemployment Insurance." Doctoral thesis, Alma Mater Studiorum - Università di Bologna, 2015. http://amsdottorato.unibo.it/7249/.

Westerheide, Nina [Verfasser]. "Penalized splines - estimation with longitudinal unemployment data : analyses of unemployment durations and unemployment risks in Germany / Nina Westerheide. Fakultät für Wirtschaftswissenschaften." Bielefeld : Universitätsbibliothek Bielefeld, Hochschulschriften, 2012. http://d-nb.info/1026679915/34.

Neal, Ronita. "Unemployment and the family : the effects of unemployment of the family "bread-winner" /." Title page, contents and abstract only, 1988. http://web4.library.adelaide.edu.au/theses/09ARPS/09arpsn342.pdf.

Anderson, Pauline. "Women and unemployment : a case study of women's experiences of unemployment in Glasgow." Thesis, University of Warwick, 1993. http://wrap.warwick.ac.uk/34634/.

Sweet, Dustin L. "Forecasting unemployment with spatial correlation." Diss., Columbia, Mo. : University of Missouri-Columbia, 2005. http://hdl.handle.net/10355/4250.

Mennel, Tim. "Studies on optimal unemployment insurance /." Berlin : Dissertation.de, 2004. http://bvbr.bib-bvb.de:8991/F?func=service&doc_library=BVB01&doc_number=012916906&line_number=0001&func_code=DB_RECORDS&service_type=MEDIA.

Tasci, Haci Mehmet. "Essays On Unemployment In Turkey." Phd thesis, METU, 2005. http://etd.lib.metu.edu.tr/upload/2/12606092/index.pdf.

Sanner, Helge. "Endogenous unemployment insurance and regionalisation." Universität Potsdam, 2001. http://opus.kobv.de/ubp/volltexte/2007/1376/.

Dettmer, Sandra Pia Lioba. "Regional earnings and unemployment differences." Thesis, Swansea University, 2013. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.678297.

Pilch, Guy Stephen Sutherland. "Social support among unemployment fishers." Thesis, National Library of Canada = Bibliothèque nationale du Canada, 1999. http://www.collectionscanada.ca/obj/s4/f2/dsk1/tape7/PQDD_0003/MQ41385.pdf.

Kemnitz, Alexander. "Immigration, unemployment and domestic welfare /." Tübingen : Mohr Siebeck, 2006. http://www.loc.gov/catdir/toc/fy0708/2006502650.html.

Speigner, Bradley James. "Essays on equilibrium unemployment dynamics." Thesis, University of Edinburgh, 2012. http://hdl.handle.net/1842/6284.

Hogan, Vincent (Vincent Peter). "Labor supply, taxation and unemployment." Thesis, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1997. http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/10313.

Canziani, Patrizia. "Labor market rigidities and unemployment." Thesis, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1996. http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/10838.

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Mafiri, M. I. "Socio-economic impact of unemployment." Diss., Pretoria : [s.n.], 2002. http://upetd.up.ac.za/thesis/available/etd-08162004-135251.

Monteiro, Luís Fabiano Carvalho. "Optimal unemployment insurance for couples." reponame:Repositório Institucional do FGV, 2015. http://hdl.handle.net/10438/13986.

Dejemeppe, Muriel. "Unemployment persistence in Belgium: An in-depth econometric analysis of the flows out of unemployment." Université catholique de Louvain, 2002. http://edoc.bib.ucl.ac.be:81/ETD-db/collection/available/BelnUcetd-06072002-084825/.

Funchien, Nantarat. "Understanding the Thailand unemployment problem comparison of Thai unemployment to Indonesia, Taiwan, and the United States /." Access citation, abstract and download form; downloadable file 5.19 Mb, 2004. http://wwwlib.umi.com/dissertations/fullcit/3131670.

Vasileva, Katya. "On Unemployment Insurance and Experience Rating." Thesis, Uppsala University, Department of Economics, 2007. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:uu:diva-7662.

There have been numerous studies, both theoretical and empirical, dealing with how the degree of experience rating affects employment. The results have been often contradicting, giving ground for ongoing debate among the economists. Here in this thesis I will present the most central studies done concerning the effects on employment induced by layoff costs and UI payroll tax in particular. A special interest will be put on the implicit-contract model, since it appears to be especially useful when studying the effects of experience rating. The theoretical approaches and the existing empirical evidence will be discussed. By doing this survey I will make an attempt in explaining and summarizing the crucial and sometimes contradicting conclusions made though the years, so that a reader unfamiliar with those concepts will be able to easily grasp.

Sanner, Helge. "Bargaining structure and regional unemployment insurance." Universität Potsdam, 2001. http://opus.kobv.de/ubp/volltexte/2007/1370/.

Kim, Jaewon. "Trade, Unemployment and Labour Market Institutions." Doctoral thesis, Stockholms universitet, Nationalekonomiska institutionen, 2011. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:su:diva-56464.

Govera, Hemish. "The relationship between inflation and unemployment." University of the Western Cape, 2017. http://hdl.handle.net/11394/5923.

Albertini, Julien. "Labor market rigidities and unemployment dynamics." Thesis, Evry-Val d'Essonne, 2011. http://www.theses.fr/2011EVRY0007/document.

Tombolo, Guilherme Alexandre. "Two essays in unemployment rate hysteresis." reponame:Repositório Institucional da UFPR, 2017. http://hdl.handle.net/1884/48889.

Lou, Zhijian. "Determination of unemployment duration in Canada." Thesis, National Library of Canada = Bibliothèque nationale du Canada, 1999. http://www.collectionscanada.ca/obj/s4/f2/dsk2/ftp03/NQ64607.pdf.

Stewart, Susan. "Unemployment in Australia : an econometric investigation /." Title page, contents and introduction only, 1986. http://web4.library.adelaide.edu.au/theses/09EC/09ecs851.pdf.

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Kapadia, Sujit. "Essays on unemployment and inflation dynamics." Thesis, University of Oxford, 2006. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.425721.

Buranavityawut, Nonthipoth. "Unemployment Risk and The Equity Premium." Thesis, University of Leicester, 2008. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.518792.

Nekoei, Arash. "Essays on Unemployment and Labor Supply." Thesis, Harvard University, 2014. http://dissertations.umi.com/gsas.harvard:11557.

Knights, Stephen J. R. "Unemployment persistence : theoretical and empirical developments." Thesis, University of Oxford, 2011. http://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:30b31d1e-9fe4-4ae2-ab52-ca93e03627f9.

Walsh, Susan. "Individual and family adaptation in unemployment." Thesis, University of Sheffield, 1990. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.240170.

Wagstaff, R. A. S. "Unemployment and health : an economic analysis." Thesis, University of York, 1985. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.355524.

137 Unemployment Essay Topics

🏆 best essay topics on unemployment, 🔎 easy unemployment research paper topics, 👍 good unemployment essay topics to write about, 🎓 most interesting unemployment research titles, 💡 simple unemployment essay ideas, ❓ unemployment research questions.

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• “Unemployment and Terrorism” TED Talk by Mohamed Ali In this TED talk, Mohamed Ali explores the relationship between unemployment and terrorism. Ali incorporates stories from his native country to support his arguments.
• Unemployment, Its Types and Government Intervention Unemployment is among the most significant challenges that influence contemporary economies. Indeed, even global economic giants suffer from the problem.
• Building a Business to Address Youth Unemployment An opportunity to build a business based on the youth unemployment problem has both strengths and weaknesses, also opportunities for further development.
• AI Development, Unemployment, and Universal Basic Income The theme of AI-human relationships takes an important place in science fiction literature, movies, and video games, but it is not limited by them.
• Social and Economic Aspects of Unemployment in the UAE Despite the UAE having the lowest level of unemployment in the world, the number of foreign workers exceeds its native employees.
• Domestic Violence in Melbourne: Impact of Unemployment Due to Pandemic Restrictions The purpose of this paper is to analyze to what extent does unemployment due to pandemic restrictions impact domestic violence against women in Melbourne.
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• Unemployment and Its Macroeconomic Implications In the process of learning about macroeconomic trends, one obtains an opportunity to expand their knowledge about particular factors and their outcomes for the economy.
• Counter-Terrorism and Unemployment Approaches A more novel approach to unemployment that considers the needs of a disenchanted youth is vital to reducing the draw towards terrorist activities.
• The Long-Term Unemployment Positive Tendency The article argues that the level of long-term unemployment has fallen significantly compared to the previous years, reaching the lowest point in 9 years.
• The Unemployment and Inflation Causes in Australia The change in the Australian 2021 indicator of unemployment is the representation of cyclical unemployment since it lasted less than a year.
• Why the Unemployment Rate Needs Fixing in the US The article Latest Jobs Report Shows Why the Unemployment Rate Needs Fixing regards the issue of the inadequateness of the currently established formal indicator in the US.
• Unemployment After the US Industrial Revolution Since the commencement of the industrial revolution, the process of automation, or more broadly the replacement of human employees by machines, has piqued widespread interest.
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• The Hispanic Unemployment Issue in the US A Hispanic person in the US is more likely to be unemployed than an average American. People of color have historically been one of the most discriminated groups.
• The US Fiscal Policy and Unemployment Rate The problem to be discussed will be centered around the relationship between fiscal policies in regard to the unemployment rate in the United States.
• Unemployment Rates in the State of Georgia In this essay, the author will present the current unemployment statistics and job outlook in the state of Georgia.
• The High Unemployment Rate as a Most Serious Threat to Americans Although the United States has one of the highest economic indicators globally, thousands of Americans are unemployed across the country.
• Unemployment Rates in the United States due to COVID-19 The increase in unemployment in the United States is associated with the country’s epidemiological situation and the tightening of quarantine measures taken by states.
• Unemployment Rate During COVID-19 COVID-19 and subsequent lockdown measures significantly affected the civilian labor force participation and unemployment rates.
• An Article Review: “Metropolitan Area Employment and Unemployment” The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics published a short article that reports the results of the analysis of the changes in the “nonfarm payroll employment” in metropolitan areas.
• The Effects of the Minimum Wage on Overall Unemployment The raised minimum wage would create more jobs for low-wage workers, as this rise would prompt the goods and services demand of such workers who would now be able to afford more.
• Unemployment Rates in the United States Unemployment is unevenly distributed across the US population, with regards to race, age, gender, and education.
• Inflation and Unemployment in Bavaria Considering the normal state of the economy and the existing level of employment close to full, the President of Bavaria is not recommended to pursue an expansionary fiscal policy.
• Economic Issues: Factors of Production Growth and Unemployment Rates Assessing the factors such as the rates of production growth, the selected financial systems, and the rates of unemployment is essential for determining the threat to the state economy.
• Federal Poverty, Welfare, and Unemployment Policies In the paper, the federal policies regarding the above mentioned areas of public interest will be scrutinized and discussed at length.
• Unemployment: Types And Factors Unemployment is one of the greatest social evils in our society today. This is because of the unfriendly impacts it has on the economy.
• Unemployment and Rosenberg’s Self-Esteem Scale The concept of self-esteem is derived from self–theory. A basic assumption of self-theory is the need to appreciate oneself and be appreciated by others.
• “Unemployment Checks: Keep ‘Em Coming” by Owens and Stettner: Article Review In the article, Owens and Stettner underline that current unemployment affects both the economy and employers, the government financial resources, and the jobless population.
• Youth Unemployment in the United Kingdom Over the years, there have been remarkable unemployment rates among the youths all across the globe as compared to the age brackets that are regarded as adults.
• Economics for Management. Unemployment in Spain Spain has the potential to reduce the unemployment rate, especially since it has already decreased significantly from 2016.
• The Relationship Between Unemployment and Economic Growth Among the factors that define economic growth and development, human resources and unemployment are considered to be the most vital.
• Unemployment Rates in the US The state of the American economy is getting closer to full employment, whereas the unemployment rates (as of 2017) remain to be approximately 4.4%.
• Frictional Unemployment and Hyperinflation Frictional unemployment is also known as voluntary unemployment. It cannot be eliminated from the economy. There are some economic benefits associated with it.
• Offshoring, Risks, and Unemployment The offshoring is fairly simple, yet this phenomenon has affected a range of companies across the globe, making it possible to enhance the quality of end products and services.
• Youth Unemployment Rates in Canadian Society The problem under investigation is the fact that the unemployment rate among people in the 18-25 age group is higher than any other age group in Canadian society.
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• Reduced Unemployment in the UK In order to understand why there has been a decline in unemployment rate in the UK, it is essential to understand the reasons affecting UK unemployment.
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• Disarmament, Unemployment, Budgets, and Inflation
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• Canada’s Interwar Unemployment From 1919 Until 1939
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• Economics Instability Increases the Unemployment Rate in Malaysia
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• Economic Freedom and Unemployment in Emerging Market Economies
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• Demographic Evolutions and Unemployment: An Analysis of French Labour Market With Workers Generations
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Hugo Dewar 1957

The Moscow Trials ‘Revised’

Source : Problems of Communism , Volume 6, no 1, January-February 1957. Scanned and prepared for the Marxist Internet Archive by Paul Flewers.

For many years Soviet propagandists and pro-Soviet Western observers presented ‘Soviet justice’ as a forward step in the advancement of legal science. Thus, the British jurist DN Pritt wrote, in a contemporary eulogy of the Moscow purge trials of the 1930s, that ‘the judicature and the prosecuting attorney of the USSR [Andrei Vyshinsky] have established their reputation among the legal systems of the world’. [1] Pritt was not at all disconcerted by the singular fact, unparalleled in Western jurisprudence, that the accused in the Soviet trials did not raise a finger to defend themselves, but instead confessed with seeming eagerness to the most heinous crimes. The Soviet government, he blandly stated, ‘would have preferred that all or most of the accused should have pleaded not guilty and contested the case’. [2]

The naïveté, or wilful blindness, of such statements has long been apparent. As early as 1937, an independent commission of inquiry conducted an exhaustive investigation into the Moscow trials of 1936 and 1937 and found them to be clear-cut travesties of justice. [3] The commission’s findings were bolstered by an ever-mounting accumulation of evidence regarding the methods employed to produce the victims’ obviously abnormal eagerness to sign their own death warrants.

Today not even the most naïve apologist can continue his self-deception. At the Twentieth Congress of the CPSU the myth was broken for all time when Nikita Khrushchev, in a secret report to a closed session of the congress, revealed the depths to which Soviet ‘justice’ had sunk:

Stalin originated the concept ‘enemy of the people’. This term automatically rendered unnecessary that the ideological errors of a man or men engaged in a controversy be proven... The formula was specifically introduced for the purpose of physically annihilating such individuals... [4]

It is significant, however, that, in denouncing ‘violations of socialist law’, Khrushchev made no direct mention either of the show trial as such, or of its exportation to the satellites. His remarks about Zinoviev and Kamenev and about the ‘annihilation’ of Lenin’s closest colleagues as ‘enemies of the party’ were furthermore clear attempts to restrict the discussion to ‘violations of socialist law’ in the period following Kirov’s assassination in December 1934 – to the great trials and purges of the 1930s. [5]

This effort is a transparent indication that the present collective leadership cannot make a decisive, radical break with their Stalinist past. It is to Stalin that the present Soviet leaders owe their positions, and it was during his reign that their methods of ‘governing’ and dispensing ‘justice’ were decisively moulded. That is why Khrushchev and his colleagues will not admit that the genesis of the Stalin-type inquisitorial trial goes much farther back than 1934, indeed, as far back as 1922.

The idea of exploiting the judicial trial of political opponents for the purpose of ‘educating’ the masses was first given concrete expression in 1922, when a trial of 22 prominent members of the Social Revolutionary Party was staged. At that time the technique of the show trial had not been perfected, and only ten police stooges consented to play the role of cringing penitents and government propagandists. At first, the state was content with this number and even permitted the rest to defend themselves stoutly. They openly proclaimed their political convictions and even refused to recognise the court. Just prior to the trial, the Bolsheviks entered into an agreement in Berlin with representatives of the international socialist movement by which several prominent socialists were invited to participate in the defence; and in the early stages of the trial they were very active on behalf of the accused. As the trial progressed, however, the intolerable contradictions between accepted conceptions of justice and a Soviet-sponsored political trial were revealed. Bit by bit the essential elements of the show trial, with which the world later became familiar, emerged.

The presiding judge struck the keynote for the proceedings by declaring that the court would be guided not by objective considerations but by the interests of the government. During the course of the trial Bukharin declared the Berlin agreement null and void, and this, coupled with the prosecution’s obstructive tactics, caused the foreign socialists to withdraw. Perhaps most important in the development of the show trial, however, was the first utilisation of the technique of agitating against the accused outside of court. Yuri Pyatakov, the president of the tribunal, spoke at one of the mass demonstrations, as did Bukharin, who applauded the role played in the trial by the ten who had ‘confessed’. [6]

In the course of the next few years the show trial was gradually brought to a high stage of perfection. ‘Evidence’ was manufactured and, by means of inhuman tortures, the accused were brought into court ‘prepared’ to cooperate in arranging their own destruction. During the course of the so-called Shakhty trial (1928), for example, a group of engineers, personifying the ‘bourgeois specialists’, took the blame for the country’s chronic economic ills and accused foreign ‘interventionist circles’ of directing their sabotage. [7] By 1930 the technique had been further perfected, and during the Industrial Party trial every single one of the accused confessed to ‘planned’ sabotage in drafting or implementing the First Five-Year Plan. One of the witnesses, brought in under heavy GPU guard, was Professor Osadchy, formerly a member of the CEC (Central Economic Council) of the Supreme Soviet, and assistant chairman of the State Planning Commission. Incredible as it may seem, Osadchy, who was one of the prosecutors at the Shakhty trial, confessed to having plotted with the very men whom he had sentenced to death in 1928! [8]

Stalin’s speech at the Sixteenth Congress (June-July 1930) gave at least the outward rationale for all the great Moscow trials. [9] His thesis was that whenever the contradictions inherent within the capitalist system grow acute, the bourgeoisie tries to solve them by turning on the Soviet Union. By the bourgeoisie Stalin meant primarily foreign nations, but his main purpose was to justify the purge of internal opposition to his rule. The vast international ‘plots’ which were uncovered regularly involved certain native Communists; often these were among the most celebrated of the revolutionary heroes, their ‘crimes’ consisting in their opposition to Stalin’s dictatorship. Without respect to their previous service, these men were condemned as saboteurs working in collaboration with the outside enemy to wreck the economy of the Soviet Union.

Thus, the Great Purge, as well as the thousands of unpublicised local purges, served the double purpose of removing those who opposed Stalin and of providing for the population an ‘explanation’ of the continuing low standard of living. Vyshinsky made the point in the following manner:

It is now clear why there are interruptions of supplies here and there, why with our riches and abundance of products, there is a shortage first of one thing and then of another. It is these traitors who are responsible. [10]

Vyshinsky also underlined the connection between the various trials. Stalin’s thesis had been proved, he said: all the trials had uncovered ‘systematically conducted espionage... the devilish work of foreign intelligence...’. [11]

Characteristically, although it was ostensibly against Stalin’s thesis and its implications that Khrushchev railed at the Twentieth Congress, his anger was aroused most of all by the fact that Stalin’s wrath had been turned against the party itself:

Using Stalin’s formulation... the provocateurs who had infiltrated the state security organs together with conscienceless careerists... [launched] mass terror against party cadres... It should suffice to say that the number of arrests based on charges of counter-revolutionary crimes had grown ten times between 1936 and 1937. [12]

Khrushchev summed up the Stalin era in anguished tones:

In the main, and in actuality, the only proof of guilt used, against all norms of current legal science, was the ‘confession’ of the accused himself; and, as subsequent probing proved, ‘confessions’ were acquired through physical pressures against the accused. [13]

Khrushchev’s speech is a masterpiece of hypocrisy. To be sure, of the 1966 delegates to the Seventeenth Party Congress (1934), 1108 were arrested on charges of counter-revolutionary activity. But Khrushchev well knows that it was not a question of ‘subsequent probing’: every leading Communist in the Soviet Union knew at the time what was going on. They were aware that the ‘confessions’ were shot through with contradictions and obvious absurdities; they knew that the trials were frame-ups.

As a matter of fact, Khrushchev’s speech itself corroborates our previous evidence that the Politburo was well aware of what was going on:

At the February-March Central Committee Plenum in 1937 many members actually questioned the rightness of the established course regarding mass repressions under the pretext of combating ‘two-facedness’. [14]

Khrushchev thus confirms that opposition to Stalin’s iron-heel policy was expressed even within the Politburo. People who had employed the most despicable methods against both non-party and party opponents began to voice ‘doubts’ when the police terror menaced them. Among those who ventured to speak up in 1937 was Pavel Postyshev, candidate member of the Politburo. Indeed, Khrushchev said that Postyshev expressed his doubts ‘most ably’, as did Stanislav Kossior, a member of the Politburo – both were liquidated. Other prominent Stalinist victims of the monster they themselves helped create were Vlas Chubar, Yan Rudzutak, Grigory Petrovsky and Robert Eikhe: all men of the Lenin era who had thrown in their lot with Stalin in his struggle for power.

How was it, then, that Molotov, Mikoyan, Voroshilov, Khrushchev and others survived? They saved themselves either by keeping their mouths shut or, where their closeness to Stalin made this impossible, by sedulously fostering the cult of the ‘brilliant leader’. Certainly Khrushchev was not unaware of what was going on. Kossior, for example, was purged in the Ukraine while he was closely associated with Khrushchev.

Without speculating about the possible splits and rivalries within the top leadership of the CPSU revealed by the varying degrees of vehemence with which individual Soviet leaders condemned Stalin’s ‘cult of personality’, the central goal of the leadership as a whole is perfectly obvious. Khrushchev and his supporters are vitally concerned with ‘rehabilitating’ the party and strengthening its authority vis-à-vis the police apparatus. The terrors of the Stalinist era left party cadres either demoralised and spiritless or, much worse, cynically and brutally opportunistic. In any event, the leadership felt that the support of the new generation of Communists – the managerial caste and the intellectuals – required assurances that the days of arbitrary terror were over. In Khrushchev’s words:

Arbitrary behaviour by one person encouraged and permitted arbitrariness in others. Mass arrests and deportations of many thousands of people, execution without trial and without normal investigation created conditions of insecurity, fear and even desperation. [15]

The exportation of the macabre and revolting confessional trial to Eastern Europe was never much of a success. The process that had transformed the CPSU into a terrorised and docile instrument of the leader took 14 years; in Poland, Bulgaria and Hungary it was telescoped into less than four years – somewhat longer in Czechoslovakia and Rumania. During this time the weak satellite Communist parties (only in Czechoslovakia could the Communists claim any sizeable following) were deprived of their ablest leaders. It was clear from the trials, moreover, that these leaders were imprisoned and executed because they attempted to stand up to the Soviet Union and that the leaders who remained were mere Soviet satraps. The confession trials of ‘national Communists’ therefore destroyed what little basis the Communist parties had for claiming to represent national interests, or even the interests of the industrial workers. At the same time, they failed dismally to destroy either national sentiment among the people or Titoist tendencies within the rank-and-file of the Communist parties.

Quite on the contrary, there can be no doubt that the confession trials in Eastern Europe played a great role in enhancing anti-Soviet feeling and in undermining the Communist parties’ faith in themselves. The enormous crowds that attended the reinternment of Rajk in Hungary after his posthumous rehabilitation were symptomatic of the anti-Soviet mood that had been generated by the ‘educational’ methods of Soviet-inspired ‘justice’. The bloodless revolt in Poland and the heroic uprising of the Hungarian workers, peasants and intellectuals were due in large part to the exposure of Soviet methods and aims which resulted from the export of the ‘modern inquisition’. The people of the satellite nations share with the Russian people a deep and bitter hatred of the secret police, and a deathless desire to end the insufferable horrors which the confession trial represented.

That the Soviet leaders were, and remain, keenly aware of this was implicit in their repudiation at the Twentieth Congress of the Stalinist inquisition and in the gradual steps that have been instituted to correct some of the more objectionable features of the police and judicial apparatus. They obviously are attempting to restore public confidence in a party and system that had become thoroughly and openly compromised. In so doing, however, they paradoxically underlined still further the bankruptcy of the system that claimed to have produced that ‘glorious workers’ paradise’, the ‘most advanced country in the world’, and they reveal nakedly their inability to cast off the imprint of this system of terror and ‘educational justice’.

1. DN Pritt, The Moscow Trial Was Fair (Russia Today, London, nd).

2. DN Pritt, The Zinoviev Trial (Gollancz, London, 1936).

3. This Commission was headed by the noted American philosopher, John Dewey. Its findings were published in two books: The Case of Leon Trotsky (Secker and Warburg, London, 1937); and Not Guilty (Secker and Warburg, London, 1938).

4. The Anti-Stalin Campaign and International Communism: A Selection Of Documents (Columbia University Press, New York, 1956), p. 13.

5. For a full discussion of these trials see this author’s The Modern Inquisition (Allan Wingate, London, 1953).

6. The most complete record of this trial is in VS Voitinski, The Twelve Who Are About To Die (Delegation of the Party of Socialists-Revolutionists, Berlin, 1922). The death sentences passed against the accused were never carried out.

7. No official records of this trial have been published. Of secondary sources, the best are HH Tiltman, The Terror in Europe (Frederick A Stokes, New York, 1932); and Eugene Lyons, Assignment in Utopia (Harcourt, Brace, New York, 1937), especially pp. 114-33.

8. Andrew Rothstein (ed), Wreckers on Trial (Modern Books, London, 1931).

9. Some of the sources on the most important Moscow trials are the following: on the 1931 Menshevik trial – The Menshevik Trial (Modern Books, London, 1931); on the 1933 Metropolitan-Vickers Industrial Company Trial – The Case of NP   Vitvitsky... [and others] Charged With Wrecking Activities at Power Stations in the Soviet Union (three volumes, State Law Publishing House, Moscow, 1933); on the 1936 trial – The Case of the Trotskyite – Zinovievite Terrorist Centre (People’s Commissariat of Justice of the USSR, Moscow, 1936); on the 1937 trial – Report of Court Proceedings in the Case of the Anti-Soviet Trotskyite Centre (People’s Commissariat of Justice of the USSR, Moscow, 1937); on the 1938 trial – Report of Court Proceedings in the Case of the Anti-Soviet ‘Bloc of Rights and Trotskyites ’ (People’s Commissariat of Justice of the USSR, Moscow, 1938).

10. Report of Court Proceedings in the Case of the Anti-Soviet ‘Bloc of Rights and Trotskyites ’, pp. 636-37.

11. Report of Court Proceedings in the Case of the Anti-Soviet ‘Bloc of Rights and Trotskyites ’, pp. 636-37.

12. The Anti-Stalin Campaign , p. 30.

13. The Anti-Stalin Campaign , p. 12.

14. The Anti-Stalin Campaign , p. 29.

15. The Anti-Stalin Campaign , p. 14.

Hugo Dewar Archive