Unemployment some international data

Feb. 5, 2010

The latest U.S. unemployment rate is 9.7 %. Job losses continue but there are signs of a recovery in manufacturing and some employers are beginning to hire again. We shall see if this is the beginning of a trend.In previous recoveries a drop of 3/10 of a percent month to month is usually that.Some analysts are overly pessimistic and arguing it is simply a one month sample survey error but I doubt it. the rate also fell by 1/10 of a percent in Canada, falling to 8.3 % for January.


My water pipe has thawed out ! Here is some very interesting data on unemployment in ten of the world's leading economies. They show the depth of the global recession. the country that appears to be doing the best of these is the netherlands which has managed to keep its unemployment rate below 4 %, a remarkable accomplishment that reflects its labour market policies.

TABLE 1. Unemployment rates adjusted to U.S. concepts, 10 countries, seasonally adjusted, 2007-2009

United
States Canada Australia Japan   France
(1) Germany
(1) Italy
(1) Nether-
lands (1) Sweden United
Kingdom


2007

U.S. Can   Aus.   Jap.   France Germ It.   Neth.   Swe   U.K.
4.6 5.3 4.4 3.9 8.1 8.7 6.2 3.2 6.2 5.4

2008

5.8 5.3 4.2 4.0 7.5 7.5 6.8 2.8 6.2 5.7

Qtr 1 2007

4.5 5.4 4.5 4.0 8.6 9.2 6.2 3.6 6.3 5.5

Qtr 2 2007

4.5 5.2 4.3 3.8 8.2 8.8 6.1 3.2 6.1 5.4

Qtr 3 2007

4.7 5.2 4.3 3.8 8.1 8.5 6.3 3.0 5.8 5.3

Qtr 4 2007

4.8 5.2 4.4 3.9 7.7 8.3 6.4 3.0 5.8 5.2

Qtr 1 2008

4.9 5.2 4.0 3.9 7.2 7.8 6.6 2.9 5.7 5.3

Qtr 2 2008

5.4 5.3 4.2 4.1 7.4 7.6 r 6.9 2.8 5.8 5.4

Qtr 3 2008

6.0 5.3 4.2 4.1 7.5 7.4 r 6.8 2.6 5.9 5.9

Qtr 4 2008

6.9 5.6 4.5 4.1 8.0 7.4 7.1 2.8 6.5 6.4

Qtr 1 2009

8.1 6.7 5.3 4.5 8.7 7.7 r 7.4 3.1 7.4 7.1

Qtr 2 2009

9.2 7.5 5.7 5.3 9.3 8.0 r 7.6 3.3 8.2 7.8

Qtr 3 2009

9.6 7.8 5.8 5.5 9.7 8.0 7.9 3.5 8.5 7.9

Jun 2008

5.6 5.3 4.2 4.1 7.4 7.5 (2) 2.5 6.3 5.5

Source: U.S. bureau of labour statistics.