Economic Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Economic - Essay Example Ironically enough, lower employment figures make industries less agile to be able to respond to rapid changes in economic conditions, paradigmatic shifts in industry sectors and the ability to absorb newer worker populations into existing industries. Analysis â€Å"There is no such thing as a free lunch† and this recent news about employment figures speaks to this in volumes. On the surface, it would appear this can be nothing but good news for all concerned but it certainly comes with tradeoffs and opportunity costs. The very fact that students are attending university instead of immediately going onto the job market demonstrates that full employment is not necessarily the best thing for an economy. In the end, economics appears to be about the effective use of finite time and resources. The Australian economy is considered by many Western observers to be one of the strongest in the industrialized world outpacing even the gargantuan economies of the EU and the United States. The large trade And mining sectors in Australia and careful attention to the Eastern economies in India and China are giving Australia a boost other Western nations simply don’t have: â€Å"The comments also chime with recent commentary from the RBA, which has been at pains to emphasise the importance of the rapidly growing Asia region to the economic outlook, stressing China and India's emergence as crucial factors for Australia's outlook and putting it above concerns about the US economy. â€Å"(Curran 2010,2) Is there a downside to the positive news about high employment? There are certainly trends which have a negative impact on the future. Take opportunity costs for instance, if most potential employees in an economy were to forego higher education and immediately jump into the market, where would the university students be? Here you have an example of a number of potential hires in the economy intentionally foregoing present consumption for future gain by measuring th e opportunity costs and taking the decision that a rather impoverished state now will yield substantially higher employment returns in remuneration in the future. Whether the engineer, doctor or attorney, large investments of time and resources are devoted to preparing for future employment for perceived greater gains in both salary and prestige. The forgone salary is significant but the potential future gains are clearly evident if the student continues to excel at university. In the case of doctors, one can spend almost a decade simply attending school and preparing for the various residencies required to establish professional credentials. From a scarcity perspective, fewer students will self-select to both see the grueling process through and have the means to remove themselves from the employment sector for that length of time. The opportunity costs for doctors tends to be so steep that it speaks to the higher salaries they commend once graduated due to the sheer lack of number s of students willing to suffer through the process of self-imposed privation and years of study. The Australian AMA was even concerned about the placement of students in shortage intern positions: â€Å"