2013 United States Career Guide

Cedar Education Lending constructed this great inforgraphic with a lot of information about the current job market in the United States. Among other things, jobs with the best and the worst employment possibilities and highest and lowest ranking careers are described.

Lifehacker

Euro Zone Unemployment Spreads Q4 2012

When people talk about Euro Zone spreads they normally refer to the difference between the government borrowing interest rate of a particular Euro Zone country in comparison to the interest rate for the German government. German government bonds are taken as the benchmark since lending to the German government is basically seen as risk free. When lending to other countries, especially the southern Euro Zone countries, a risk premium is added on top of the German interest rate to reflect the higher default rate of those countries.

Besides this financial interpretation of spreads, a different form of spreads can be constructed to show the differences in the real economy between the Euro Zone countries: unemployment spreads. Unemployment spreads for the Euro Zone are defined as the difference between the unemployment rate in a particular Euro Zone country and the unemployment rate in Germany. As can be expected Euro Zone countries most hit by the Euro crisis have the highest unemployment spreads, with Greece and Spain even above 20 percent. This is a lot higher than the Euro Area average of 5.8 percent and the EU average of 5,3 percent. Austria, the Netherlands and Finland on the other hand have unemployment rates comparable to that of Germany.

IMF Euro Zone Unemployment Rate Forecasts (WEO Fall 2012)

This graph shows the unemployment rates the IMF has projected for several Euro Zone countries. Note that the institute expects the high Greek unemployment to go down faster than the high unemployment in Spain.

Bondvigiliants

Did the U.S. Job Market improve?

The U.S. job figures are presented in this graph. The unemployment finally edged under the famous 8 percent. Yet the participation rate (job force/potential job force) remained at a remarkable low rate and the average unemployment duration also still stayed at historically high levels.

(Update: today new figures were released. The jobless rate remained under the 8 percent: 7,9 percent.)

Reuters

Historical Financial Crises: Percentage Job Losses From Peak

In this graph the percentage job losses from the peaks are shows for several countries during selected financial crises. Finland (1991: year of start of the contraction) saw the biggest decline in employment; almost 20 percent. Compared to Finland (and most other selected countries) the United States job market is currently not doing that bad. For Sweden of the selected countries it took the longest, during its crisis starting in 1991, for the job market the recover to pre-crisis levels, 17,8 years. 

Luxetveritas

Scandinavia Versus The Euro Zone

The economies Sweden and Norway in Scandinavia grow faster and both have a lower unemployment rate than the average of the Euro Zone. Fiscal positions are also considrably better in Norway and Sweden. The manufacturing indicator is slowing down for these countries lately as well though.

Thompson Reuters

EU: More than a Million Jobs Available

This chart from the Guardian shows the number of jobs available in the countries of the European Union. Especially in Germany and the United Kingdom are a lot of jobs for applicable. This is more surprising for the United Kingdom, since its economy is not in particular good shape. In Italy and France, with comparable number of inhabitants as Germany and the UK are surprisingly low jobs available.

Click on the source for details per country.

The Guardian

EU Economic & Political Overview

This graph shows per country first the forecasted GDP-growth for 2012, second the unemployment and last the government election date.

Business Insider

Greece Economic Overview (May 2012)

Overview of the Greece economy (May 2012). Especially notice the consumer confidence and the collapsed new car registrations.

Total Jobs: United States Vs. Euro Zone

As you can see in this graph, before the Great Recession the total nominal employment was higher in the United States than in the Euro Zone. During the Great Recession U.S. employment declined more than twice the number of the Euro Zone. Unlike the U.S., the Euro Zone has not seen a recovery in the number of jobs. Since late 2011 the number of jobs are even declining again in the Euro Zone.

Zero Hedge

EU: Broader Unemployment Rate (2011)

This graph shows a wider measue of unemployment for the countries in the European Union. The blue line (U-3) is the normal unemployment rate, as reported by the national statistical agencies. Unemployment is defined as the part of the labor force without a job that is available and actively seeking for a job. With this measure Spain clearly has the highest unemployment, followed by Greece and Lithuania. 

Next to the normal measure of unemployment people in the work force can also be seeking for work, but not immediately available or available but not seeking or involuntary part-time. When you add these factors you get the total (partly) workless labor supply. With this measure Spain is still the country with the highest unemployment. Latvia and Ireland are now second and third. Spain, Ireland and Sweden are countries with a relatively high percentage of the labor force being involuntary part-time. Italy and Latvia are countries that have especially a high percentage of the labor force available, but not seeking. 

Luxetveritas

Hourly Labour Costs European Union Private Sector 2011

This chart with data from Eurostat shows the estimated hourly labour costs in euro's for enterprises with more than 10 employees in the European Union. Norway, Belgium, Sweden, Denmark and France have the highest labour costs. Bulgaria, Romania and Latvia have the lowest costs.

Eurostat

Spanish Construction Employment From Record High to Record Low

With real interest rates going negative in the years after 2000, more than 5 million new immigrants added to the labor force and high amounts of lending by households and companies (from abroad) not only a housing bubble was created in Spain but also one in the construction market.

When the credit crisis begun and interest rates started to rise it became clear that this boom was not sustainable. Construction employment dropped to the lowest value in 25 years this year.

Economies of Italy and Spain Compared (March 2012)

Before the crises started in 2008 the economy in Spain grew remarkably faster than in Italy. Since the crisis started Spain is still doing relatively better (or rather less bad) again, as you can see in the first graph on the left. While that happened Spain's unemployment, while being almost the same as for Italy in 2007, was more than double the rate of Italy in 2011. Spain again is doing better for the government debt, although it increased a lot more since the crises than in Italy, so the two graphs on the bottom show.

Spain and Italy's bond yields were closely tied in the last five years. In late 2011 Italy's bond yields sparked above that of Spain, but since a few weeks Italy's yields have come down to around Spain's yield again.

Percent U.S. Job Losses Great Recession Compared to the Depression

In this post from April last year I already showed the great graph Calculated Risk blog makes each time new (un)employment figures for the United States are released. The current job market crisis is compared to those after the other recessions after WWII for the percent of job losses. Unfortunately there was no data available for the Great Depression. Although not a as detailed as the other graph Calculated Risk was recently able to construct a graph comparing the current crisis with the Depression. It is not as detailed because only yearly estimates are available for the depression. You can see that the current recession is by far not as severe as the Great Depression.

Calculated Risk

United States Initial Jobless Claims

U can debate whether the U.S. labor market - with the unemployment rate declining in recent months - is really improving. Especially if you look at decreasing participation of the labor force and the still very high average duration of unemployment the actual improvement is questionable. The growth of new unemployed is getting lower and lower though. With the initial jobless claims on a four year low. At least one sign that is really improving of the labor market.

Unemployment in Germany, Spain & EU Compared

You can see before the introduction of the euro the unemployment rates in Spain and Germany converged.  Until recently Spain and Germany both had their unemployment rate around the average of the European Union. Over the last two decades on average Spain's unemployment rate was about just under 15%. Germany on the other hand had on average an unemployment rate of about 9 percent.

Since the crisis Spain's unemployment rose dramatically. Its now more than double the average in the European Union. In Germany the unemployment even decreased since the crisis. Germany's unemployment hasn't been this low for twenty years.

European Youth Unemployment 1991-2012

This graph shows the people under 25 actively looking for work as a percentage of the labor force (up to 25 years) for selected countries in Europe. In other words the European youth unemployment. For most countries the youth unemployment declined before and after the introduction of the euro. Although this was not the case for Germany and Portugal where youth unemployment actually increased after the euro was introduced. In the United Kingdom youth unemployment was relatively stable until the crisis.

Why The U.S. Participation Rate Is Declining, Besides The Crisis

The participation rate is the ratio of the population over 15 that either works or is actively looking for work. The participation rate decreased sharply during the crises.

According to the Congressional Budget Office there are several (structural) reasons which led to a decrease in the labor force participation rate in the United States, besides the economic crisis.

1. Long term trend for people between 16-24 to study more and work less while studying.  
2. The Baby boom elderly population starts to retire. 
3. In november most of the drop in the participation rate was driven by unmarried woman. The share of woman who chose to work fell to its lowest level in 20 years.

Ofcourse these causes may well be strengthened by the economic crisis and its important not to forget the United States unemployment is still at a record high. Although lower than the unemployment of the European Union.

Washington Post

US Average Duration Of Unemployment Exploded

Reuters made a graph of the average number of weeks workers are unemployed in the United States. As you can see this is higher than any after war period. Unfortunately the depression in the thirties is not pictured.