Smaller firms are in a tough situation. They don't have leeway to raise wages to attract and keep employees because surging raw material prices are squeezing their profits.

Minimum old management propaganda.

Great comments from all the above.

All we hear is excuse after excuse not to raise wages.

Then they shouldn't be in business.

Yes, it’s boring, like always both sides cry out loud all the time and under all economic conditions. The employees always want higher wages , deserved or not, economically possible or not, and the companies always don’t want to pay a fair price for their employees’ work weather they are in a big boom with full order books or in red numbers. It’s natural behavior, yes, but it also doesn't make much sense. It would be better if both sides would sometimes leave their bunker and cooperate a little bit in good and bad times.

Unemployment can provide the opportunity to upgrade your skills through acquiring certifications in growth industries.

For the upper class. For the middle and lower classes, unemployment is a threat to ones very survival.

Many managers and heads of companies get all the juice from the lower employees, I can guarantee you that, whether there is profit or not. Most of the the time totally undeserved.

On a macro level, everything is relative, everything is zero sum.

I personally would rather have a bad job than be unemployed. 

Not me. Unemployment can provide the opportunity to upgrade your skills through acquiring certifications in growth industries. One of Japan's big problems is people stagnating away in nowhere subsistence-pay jobs with no opportunity of improvement or advancement.