Concept in Definition ABC

Employment is the accomplishment of a series of tasks in exchange for a pecuniary remuneration called salary. In today's society, workers trade their skills in the so-called labor market, which is regulated by state powers to avoid conflicts. The company would be the place where the powers of the different workers interact in order to receive a profit.

This order in the production of goods and services is closely linked to the heyday of the capitalism. Instead, at the dawn of humanity, the work of the most prominent societies was carried out mainly from the use of slaves that they did not dispose of their lives and that they were subject to commercial trafficking. In the Middle Ages, on the other hand, the work was carried out by the so-called “serfs”, who offered part of what they produced to the so-called “feudal lord”, who was the owner of the lands. With the development of the bourgeoisie, the social relations were changing, suppressing the feudal regime, but maintaining slavery.

With the arrival of the nineteenth century, the work moves away from this ominous situation and approaches the current conception in our days. Both slavery and servitude have been eradicated in large part thanks to the recognition of freedom and respect for physical integrity and moral of the man in documents of organisms International such as the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, proclaimed by the United Nations (UN). Precisely in this Declaration both forms of possession of persons are totally abolished (rejected) and work is instead It is conceived as an activity carried out by the person, through free choice, without the pressure or obligation of anyone who demands it. perform it (this does not have to do with the tasks and responsibilities that each one has within a company or a job position in particular).

The call Industrial Revolution indirectly derived in many of the protections that safeguard the worker in our days. The replacement of labor by machinery had at first pernicious consequences on the society, in as much and as a matter of fact, it reduced the labor force until it brought to the deepest misery a great number of workers. However, this helpless position of the worker led to the establishment of unions that were vigilant in defending his interests.

During the Welfare State consolidated on the foundations of Keynesianism, the workers, grouped in unions, managed to have what we know today as "rights labor ”. Among other things, from that moment on, workers began to enjoy paid vacations, days off weekly according to work, days of no more than eight hours, and the salaries of workers were visibly increased. The time. The vision of the working man also conceived him as a consuming subject, so if that “man worker "his salary was increased, and then he had more money, this would favor the action of" man consumer".

With the implementation of so-called measures Neoliberalism, many of these rights won by workers were visibly affected. One of the most drastic measures of neoliberal governments is to guarantee labor flexibility, which clearly favors capitalists (companies). Another measure was to suspend the “unemployment funds” that were paid for a certain time (3 or 6 months, generally) to a worker when he was fired from his job with or without explicit cause.

At present, the employment is a difficult circumstance to guarantee For the whole active population. This makes the states redouble their efforts to reduce the number of unemployed to a minimum, and therefore alleviate the negative consequences that would derive from this situation.

In a context of global crisis and social unrest, however, it is not easy for governments to envision which path or which economic “recipes” to follow to combat the issue of employment / unemployment. On the other hand, it is not so clear to the citizenship To glimpse if the governors really intend to implement effective and viable plans for the reduction of unemployment and the promotion of employment. In this sense, the battle is still being pursued by the capitalists. In areas such as Latin America or Africa, programs such as those of the United Nations try to “empower” rural populations and women to achieve sustainable economies that also favor the human development.