Underutilization of labour force

Mass unemployment is a complex matter in transient, suburban, developing communities. Large numbers of people are tending to move to the city to seek employment. Many of these newcomers (and many of the original residents as well) are not trained in the skills and methods necessary for a rapidly expanding, technologically oriented economy. In addition, the young people find, when they finish school that they are vying with hundreds of others for every available job in the city. Likewise, the young educated women are not meaningfully employed in the over-crowded families but cannot find openings in the job market. Family care structures ensure the support of these people, often "carrying" them for years in the hope that an opportunity will arise. These circumstances have produced a large force of unemployed urban residents while an extensive amount of necessary work remains untackled in their own home villages. This mass of disengaged and unproductive people not only means that something positive that could be done is not done, but has the negative effect of a drain both economically and psychologically on the community: the support of the unemployed leads to even more reduced family resources; and the inactivity and unused energy of the unemployed, and especially the young, fosters a mood of hopelessness.