Unemployment is the state of someone who is left without a job.
The state or condition of someone who has been unemployed is known as unemployment : that is, who has lost their job. In any case, depending on the country, the concept can refer to different issues.
In some regions, the money received by certain laid-off workers is called severance pay. This is a social benefit that allows the person who lost their job to have the necessary resources to survive until they find another job.
Unemployment in different countries
In Colombia , all workers have the right to these severance payments, which represent a form of mandatory savings and function as insurance against unemployment. At a legal level, severance pay is equivalent to one month's salary for each year worked. When the amount is not settled at the end of the year, it is added to a Severance Fund chosen by the employee .
Layoff is also called, in other nations , the cancellation or revocation of an employment contract , decided by the employer. This termination means that the employee is left without his job.
Suppose that the government of a country, with the objective of cutting costs, announces the layoff of 10% of the contracts that the national State maintains with public workers. This decision implies that 10% of state employees will lose their jobs. From the government perspective, layoffs from contracts allow the State to save a large sum of money that was used to pay salaries. For workers, on the other hand, unemployment means being left without income, with all the problems that this situation generates.
Unemployment is the social benefit that allows those who are left unemployed to have resources to survive.
The notion in 19th century Spain
It is important to establish that the term in question was widely used in Spain during the 19th century . At that time it was used to define the official who, by decision of a superior, was deprived of his job. Of course, in some cases, a part of their salary was given to them.
If it was widely used at that stage, it was because during it there were numerous cases of changes in government. And that meant that when a new person came to power, he made the changes he considered regarding the civil service, resulting in many being left without working. It was a way of placing people "loyal" to the government in positions of trust or certain responsibility, regardless of whether they were trained and qualified to occupy them or not.
Precisely this situation was reflected on many occasions in literature and journalism. Good examples of this are works such as "King Baltasar" by Leopoldo Alas Clarín or "Miau" (1888) by Benito Pérez Galdós .
However, this unemployment that officials suffered with some frequency ended with the arrival of Antonio Maura to the government. And this determined that it was necessary and fundamental to achieve the independence of what the public service was. For this reason, actions in this regard began in 1898 but it was later, in 1918, when the aforementioned independence was achieved. Hence, civil servants no longer feared being out of work.