Compare unemployment rates, and America's job market looks much stronger
than Europe's. The U.S. rate for August, being released Friday, is
expected to be a near-normal 6.1 percent. In the 18 countries that use
the euro currency, by contrast, it's a collective 11.5 percent.
Yet by some measures, Europe is doing better. It's been more successful in keeping people working, letting the disabled stay on the job and boosting the proportion of women in the workforce.
And Europeans in their prime working years — ages 25 to 54 — are more likely to be employed than Americans are.
Fewer than 77 percent of prime-age Americans have jobs, compared with 80 percent in Belgium, 81 percent in France and 82 percent in the Netherlands, according to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.
If Americans 25 to 54 were as likely to be working as Germans the same age, 8.3 million more Americans would have jobs.
''Where we used to talk about the U.S. having a high-powered labor market in the late 1990s, Germany has that now,'' says Jacob Kirkegaard, senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics.
It's true, of course, that the unemployed have a much harder time finding a job in, say, Spain or Greece than the United States. Spain's unemployment rate is nearly 25 percent. For people under 25, the rate tops 50 percent.
Though the eurozone's overall unemployment rate is 11.5 percent, individual countries include low-rate nations like Germany and Austria (4.9 percent) as well as some with much higher unemployment than the United States: Portugal (14 percent), Italy (12.6 percent), France (10.3 percent), Belgium (8.5 percent).
Yet Josh Bivens, research director at the liberal Economic Policy Institute, says America's relatively low ''headline unemployment rate is painting too rosy a picture of how the U.S. labor market is doing.''
The fall in the U.S. unemployment rate has been exaggerated by rising numbers of adults neither working nor looking for work. The government counts people as unemployed only if they're looking for a job. When many stop looking, the unemployment rate can fall even if few people are hired.
The share of Americans 16 to 64 either working or seeking work has fallen to 72.7 percent from 75.3 percent at the end of 2007, when the Great Recession began. In the 28 countries in the European Union, the figure has risen to 72.3 percent from 70.5 percent in late 2007. The United States and Europe calculate their employment rates in broadly similar ways.
No single reason explains why prime-age employment and workforce participation trends are weaker in the United States.
Read more: Europe's job market has strengths the US doesn't - Worcester Telegram & Gazette - telegram.com
Yet by some measures, Europe is doing better. It's been more successful in keeping people working, letting the disabled stay on the job and boosting the proportion of women in the workforce.
And Europeans in their prime working years — ages 25 to 54 — are more likely to be employed than Americans are.
Fewer than 77 percent of prime-age Americans have jobs, compared with 80 percent in Belgium, 81 percent in France and 82 percent in the Netherlands, according to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.
If Americans 25 to 54 were as likely to be working as Germans the same age, 8.3 million more Americans would have jobs.
''Where we used to talk about the U.S. having a high-powered labor market in the late 1990s, Germany has that now,'' says Jacob Kirkegaard, senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics.
It's true, of course, that the unemployed have a much harder time finding a job in, say, Spain or Greece than the United States. Spain's unemployment rate is nearly 25 percent. For people under 25, the rate tops 50 percent.
Though the eurozone's overall unemployment rate is 11.5 percent, individual countries include low-rate nations like Germany and Austria (4.9 percent) as well as some with much higher unemployment than the United States: Portugal (14 percent), Italy (12.6 percent), France (10.3 percent), Belgium (8.5 percent).
Yet Josh Bivens, research director at the liberal Economic Policy Institute, says America's relatively low ''headline unemployment rate is painting too rosy a picture of how the U.S. labor market is doing.''
The fall in the U.S. unemployment rate has been exaggerated by rising numbers of adults neither working nor looking for work. The government counts people as unemployed only if they're looking for a job. When many stop looking, the unemployment rate can fall even if few people are hired.
The share of Americans 16 to 64 either working or seeking work has fallen to 72.7 percent from 75.3 percent at the end of 2007, when the Great Recession began. In the 28 countries in the European Union, the figure has risen to 72.3 percent from 70.5 percent in late 2007. The United States and Europe calculate their employment rates in broadly similar ways.
No single reason explains why prime-age employment and workforce participation trends are weaker in the United States.
Read more: Europe's job market has strengths the US doesn't - Worcester Telegram & Gazette - telegram.com
