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Unemployment continues to be a significant social problem in many countries and societies. Owens (2002) defines unemployment as the existence within a social group, geographic area, or society of significant amount of adults seeking paid job or work, and the pervasiveness of such a situation. According to Halliday (2014), poor economic conditions such as unemployment result in health risks. Owens (2002) asserts that unemployment is associated with psychological, social, and physical effects. Psychological effects of unemployment include negative self-esteem, shame, despair, depression, apathy, loss of purpose, and lethargy among others. Social effects of unemployment include theft, vandalism, loss of status, poverty, social isolation, family life disruption, and loss of daily routine among other factors (Owens 2002). Physical effects of unemployment include a variety of illnesses, insomnia, anxiety, and stress sometimes leading to attempted suicide, short-term and intermittent drunkenness, child abuse, and intra-family violence (Owens 2002). Despite the adverse impacts of unemployment in the society, job loss and unemployment continue to affect millions of individuals each year throughout the global (Nordenmark 2007). In Australia, the issue of unemployment continues to affect many people, thereby making it a social problem within Australian society. This paper explains the ideas of the sociological imagination and social construction and applies them to how unemployment is commonly comprehended as a social problem within Australian society. When perceived via the lenses of social construction and the sociological imagination, it can be argued that unemployment is commonly comprehended as a social problem within Australian society, as it affects the broader Australian society and is caused by the socially and historically situated practices, which manifest healthcare, psychosocial impacts, and stigmatization of the unemployed. To justify this claim, the paper will commence by explaining social construction and the sociological imagination ideas, and proceed to apply these notions in illustrating how usually understood as a social issue within Australian society.

Social constructionist emerged from the unification of developments within the fields of philosophy of science, cognitive sociology, and ordinary language analysis, as well as aspects of Goffman’s dramaturgical approach and symbolic interactionism (Semin 1996).  Semin (1996) defines social construction as a research orientation that regards the social world in specific and general aspects of it as the outcomes of historically and socially situated practices.  Social construction is a term in sociology that emphasizes dependence on the contingent aspects of our social selves. Social construction can also be referred to as an area of knowledge that specializes in studying the development of sociological phenomena (Semin 1996). Immanuel Kant, a sociologist, was a major contributor to social construction arguing that the world is independent of human minds and thus humans should not consider themselves as creators (Semin 1996). Kant's propositions is that within the world, there exists structures in which humans’ view things in specific ways and create a set of beliefs (Semin 1996). Therefore, from his writings, social construction include ways human perceptions are developed on the reality of the world, concepts and ideas which influence rational choices and decision making. According to social construction, humans are expected to behave based on social expectations. A good example is during childbirth, where if a boy or a girl is conceived, social construction theory expects individuals to behave as expected in life based on gender. Parents will dress the boy or girl based on gender and expected norms of the society. Social construction is influenced by many factors that range from culture, societal norms, class, race, religion, among others. Thus, an individual’s identity is created through interactions with other people in society and their reactions to societal expectations. In the context of unemployment, an individual’s ability to access opportunities is restricted to social factors such as education. Due to an individual status that is dependent on social factors such as race, ethnicity, religion, and class, it becomes difficult to overcome stereotypes of unemployment (Nadya et al. 2010). Overall, social construction is an essential concept in the community as it develops beliefs, ideas, concepts, and expectations of the society towards certain aspects.

The terminology, sociological imagination, was established by an American sociologist known as Wright Mills (Andrews 2007). This term describes a comprehension of a person’s own experiences and positions as a mirror or reflective of wider historical and social forces (Andrews 2007). In his book entitled, “Sociological Imagination,” Mills argued that the sociological imagination transcends a heuristic device or theoretical concept, and considered it a promise. In relation to this Andrews (2007) asserts that the sociological imagination promises to permit individuals to comprehend their place within the wider social and historical context. Mills proceeded to argue that individuals today increasingly have a feeling of their private lives being a series or sequence of traps. As such, the sociological imagination contributes to the comprehension of the nature of these snares and determination of whether these nooses are private in nature or their actual origin exists within the broader historical and social forces (Andrews 2007). The sociological imagination offers a fruitful difference between social and individual problems. Andrews (2007) assert that some problems experienced by individuals simply mirror those which intimidate individually held lifestyles or values and are issues whose resolution and origin exist within the personal sphere. Nonetheless, other problems reflect broader public or social issues. Even though an individual may face these problems first-hand or subjectively, the sociological imagination prompts a person to speculate how such issues may be tied to wider historical or structural trends.  Thus, the sociological imagination promise focuses on connecting personal problems to public issues. Mills considered the sociological imagination a form of self-consciousness as it directs focus to the connections between the personal issues of milieu and the public matters of social structure (Andrews 2007).  Troubles reflect a person’s personal issues and are private matters unworthy of sociological focus, whereas issues mirror problems that go beyond the private sphere of the individual, and are hence public matter or matters (Andrews 2007). By focusing on the issue of unemployment, Mills argued that when an individual is unemployed, this matter is considered personal. However, when a substantial number of individuals are unemployed, the problem translates into a public issue regarding the absence of economic opportunity. As such, broad historical and social patterns such as deindustrialization yield outcomes experienced and felt by individuals as personal troubles, which in turn masks their structural origins. Therefore, the key exists in connecting experiences like unemployment to wider social and historical patterns such as deindustrialization (Andrews 2007). When many individuals witness similar personal or private troubles, such a situation denotes structural, as opposed to personal origins.

When applied in comprehending the unemployment within the Australian context, social construction and the sociological imagination ideas contribute to the revelation of unemployment as a social problem as it impacts the wider Australian society and results from the socially and historically situated practices, which are evident in healthcare, psychosocial effects, and stigmatization. The public health care in Australia, which is publicly funded with taxpayers’ funds is primarily responsible for the healthcare of individuals. People experiencing long ages of unemployment are mentally concerned about their contribution to the community, social respect and sense of duty. Unemployment normally leads to adverse psychosocial impacts such as alcoholism, change of lifestyle, gender-based violence, rape, and marital problems (Uila, et al., 1997). Besides, unemployment results in crime as people look for ways of survival from detrimental social problems. Crime affects the welfare of the society and thus considered a social problem, and in most cases, it is related to unemployment and low levels of education (Uila, et al. 1997). In the long-run, unemployment can lead to mental illnesses such as depression which affects personal life and concern to the community. 

            Unemployed people are considered of low social class, and in most cases, the group of people is stigmatized. According to Mills view on social imagination, this perception should be changed as it would refer that life problems are a source of social structure (Antony & Miles 1996). The number of job vacancies in Australia does not match the number of unemployed people. Hence, the problem of unemployment in Australia should not be individualized since it affects the wider society. To address this issue, the Australian government should look for external factors that are a major contributor to unemployment such as technological advancements, outsourcing of labour and a shrinking economy rather than individualizing the problem to lack of education. There should be a different angle of viewing unemployment problems in Australia rather than focusing on individuals lack of necessary education or skills. The expectations of employers on individuals’ capabilities are also very high, which results in high rates of unemployment.

 Social construction and the sociological imagination perspectives can be employed in addressing the issue of unemployment in Australia since the effects of unemployment are not individualistic but rather affect the wider community. Australian government, legislators, policy makers must collectively work together to find flexible work conditions for job seekers to minimize the rising rates for unemployment both for its born citizens and immigrants. Relating the issue of unemployment to the Mills theory, individuals’ problems are considered societal problems. The Australian policy makers can apply this theory to better understand employment issues faced over the ages and create policies, frameworks and guidelines to better address them. Unemployment is a cost to an economy since the government is forced to divert rather essential resources to areas that are not productive in building of the economy. Besides, social problems such as crime, gender-based violence, alcoholism are also reduced when unemployment is solved altogether.  Therefore, based on the above perspectives, unemployment can be regarded as social problem in Australia Society.

In conclusion, examining unemployment within the Australian society through the lens of social construction and the sociological imagination perspectives reveals that it is a social problem, which impacts the broader Australian society, as evident in healthcare, stigmatization of the unemployed, and adverse psychosocial impacts. Embracing the measures suggested in this paper will enable the Australian government to effectively address the problem of unemployment.