It turns out that the OECD (the club of developed countries) keeps harmonized statistics for various economic magnitudes of interest. The above shows the
total number of unemployed persons across the entire OECD. As you can see, the phenomenon of high and persistent unemployment is general, not specific to the United States. The data above are a mix of annual, quarterly, and monthly data, with the most recent being May, 2010.
Two that go against the OECD trend are Canada & Germany where employment has recovered rapidly.
ReplyDeleteThe German response to the crisis was quite novel and involved bailing out employees in situ so that their jobs were preserved. Article on this strategy just published here (today actually):
The maintenance of hope: Germany's secret to recovery.