Microeconomics deals with the economics decisions made at a micro, level. It is the analysis of decisions made by individuals or a group of individuals. Microeconomics also analyses the factors that affect the decisions made by the individuals. Cost and benefit considerations are taken into account while making the decisions. Costs can be either financial or opportunity costs, which is the next best alternative to an action. Microeconomics is the efficient apportionment of scarce resources between alternative uses. It also involves price determination through to gain maximum utility and maximum profit. The perspective of microeconomics is the competitive demand price as seen by the suppliers and the demanders.
The best example to understand microeconomics is the announcement of four recalls by Ford that affects at least 1.4 million vehicles. The company has announced that faulty sensors and electrical connections have caused the vehicles to lose power steering, which has resulted in the increase of the risk of crash . Ford has announced that the issue can be fixed by either replacing a part or a upgrading the software. In the recent months, 20 accidents and eight injuries took place due to the steering problems. Ford has also recalled 196,600 vehicles affected by corrosion to road salt, which have resulted in fire due to the short circuit and overheat of the license plate lamp . There was also a case where the driver was injured when he tried to extinguish the fire. The company has announced to fix the issue.
Ford has also said that the recall applies to all the vehicles in about 20 states of the United States and the District of Columbia, where the roads are treated by road salt during the winter storms . The fourth recall announced by Ford was about the floor mats that were not installed properly due to which there are high chances that the mats come in contact with the accelerator pedal, which have resulted in two actions. The manufacturers of automobiles have come under scrutiny since General Motors has openly announced the safety issue, which it had not disclosed for ten years. The federal regulators believe that the ignition switch issue was the cause for at least 13 deaths . Ford has also recalled the vehicles that were facing problems with the side airbags and door handles. Hence, it is understood that the sound knowledge of the motives, decisions, constraints and actions of various individual decision units is essential to analyze microeconomics .
Another example is the article that explains how the United States can recover from the job crisis. 113,000 is the number of jobs the US economy needs to hit, in order to recover all the jobs it has lost in the financial crisis . The survey conducted by the Economists expects that around 200,000 jobs were added to the US economy in the month of May. The U.S. Department of Labor has released the May jobs report, which was weaker than what the economists expected in their survey. It was also announced that the private sector added 179,000 jobs in the month of May . Though it took only two years to wipe 8.7 million jobs in the United States, in order to recover the jobs, it took four long years and it is said to be the longest period of job recovery since the Department of Labor has started keeping an eye on the trend .
The major concern is that the jobs that were recovered were not the ones that were lost and none of them belonged to the same field. There are a few states, such as Nevada and Arizona, which were hit hard by the housing sector that they still haven’t recovered the jobs which were lost during the financial crisis . However, there are a few other states with energy boom that are above the pre- recession peak. For example, North Dakota has 30 percent more jobs at the present time that than it did six years back. Another example is Texas, which has 9 percent more jobs than it did before the financial crisis . Across the country, it was estimated that about 4.2 million jobs that were lost in the financial crisis were merely in the fields of construction and manufacturing. So far, only about one in four jobs have been recovered by the US economy.
On the other hand, when taking the professional office jobs into consideration, the jobs have not only returned, but are very high in number. The jobs in the fields of leisure and hospitality have also been recovered, out of which the employment in healthcare has never stopped growing high in number . Since the population of the United States has been growing at a rapid rate, it is very important to ensure the growth of jobs in order to maintain a stable economy in the country. The United States has more than 15 million people in the age of working group that it did in the year 2008, which implies that it is a crucial period for the country to gain millions of more jobs to achieve a healthy job market in the country than it had before the recession .
The Bureau of Labor Statistics expects a great boom in the occupations such as home health aides, retail sales and registered nurses. It is expected that these fields will have the most job openings by 2022. Other occupations such as administrative assistants, construction labors and janitors are also expected to increase in a great number. In 2007, the job market of the United States ranged between 4 and 5 percent; however, the reason was due to an overheating housing market . In the current situation, it is impossible to achieve the rate of 4 percent, because the long-term unemployed in the United States may be permanently out of work. The Economists have defined full employment as an unemployment rate at a percentage of 5.5, which is a healthier turnover in the job market . The economists predict that it would take at least two years for the country to achieve an unemployment rate of 5.5 percent.
The next article analyses about one of the issues that gets worse with the improvement of the economy of the United States. The issue the article specifies is about the commuting time.
According to the report from a GPS manufacturer, it is figured out that in the year 2013, the Americans spent more than 20 extra hours in the traffic on an average . The time lost in the traffic was more by two hours when compared to 2012. The congestion of the vehicles got worse as more and more people hit the road day by day, travelling to new jobs. In the previous years, the case was not much serious as people had fewer jobs due to the economic crisis in the country. Due to the high commutation time, it is reported that the drivers incurred extra costs of up to $832, which includes the cost of the fuel .
It is the responsibility of the municipalities to improve traffic through a balanced approach by building roads, focusing on public transportation and managing roads with sophisticated techniques like better signs and signaling . In the present time, the economy of the United States is growing faster than the time required by the government to improve the roads. Though the economic growth is picking up and moving towards a positive trend, the transportation system should be equally strong to accommodate the growth of the economy .
When analyzing the gist of the three articles, it is obvious that economy is interdependent on various factors and it is important for a country to take care of all the issues in order to maintain a strong and stable economy. It is all about making right decisions at the right time that result in a strong economy. Time to time analysis of the economy and firm decision making by the government are all contributing factors to a strong economy. The three articles that I have chosen have a similarity in the role played by the government in improving the economy of the country.
Works Cited
Brody, Ben. "Why your commute is getting worse." 6 June 2014. CNN. 9 June 2014 <http://money.cnn.com/2014/06/06/news/commuting-time-lost/index.html?iid=SF_E_River>.
Kurtz, Annalyn. "U.S. soon to recover all jobs lost in crisis." 4 June 2014. CNN. 9 June 2014 <http://money.cnn.com/2014/06/04/news/economy/jobs-report-recovery/index.html?iid=SF_E_River>.
Wallace, Gregory. "Ford recalls affect 1.4 million vehicles." 29 May 2014. CNN. 9 June 2014 <http://money.cnn.com/2014/05/29/autos/ford-recalls/index.html>.
