It's interesting that so often everyone talks about how unemployment develops, but not how employment develops.
Unemployment statistics are not so useful, precisely for the reason given: people who've given up hope of finding employment are often excluded.
Employment statistics are much more real, because the taxman wants his own, so it covers everyone who actually works. Of course, there are imperfections here as well: people may be working part-time when they actually would like to have a full time job.
During the years 2000 - 2012, employment rate in United States has gone down from 74.1 % to 67.1 % [0].
In Germany, the rate has gone up from 65.6 % to 72.8 %. [1]
In Sweden, it is relatively unchanged, 74.3 % to 73.8 %. [2]
In Greece, the numbers have always been much lower: from 55.9 % down to 51.3 %. [3]
E.g. Korea and France are surprisingly low, in the 60's. Israel has increased during this decade a lot, and it seems to be due to more women working.
Unemployment statistics are not so useful, precisely for the reason given: people who've given up hope of finding employment are often excluded.
Employment statistics are much more real, because the taxman wants his own, so it covers everyone who actually works. Of course, there are imperfections here as well: people may be working part-time when they actually would like to have a full time job.
During the years 2000 - 2012, employment rate in United States has gone down from 74.1 % to 67.1 % [0].
In Germany, the rate has gone up from 65.6 % to 72.8 %. [1]
In Sweden, it is relatively unchanged, 74.3 % to 73.8 %. [2]
In Greece, the numbers have always been much lower: from 55.9 % down to 51.3 %. [3]
E.g. Korea and France are surprisingly low, in the 60's. Israel has increased during this decade a lot, and it seems to be due to more women working.
[0] http://www.oecd.org/els/emp/howdoesyourcountrycompare-united...
[1] http://www.oecd.org/els/emp/howdoesyourcountrycompare-german...
[2] http://www.oecd.org/els/emp/howdoesyourcountrycompare-sweden...
[3] http://www.oecd.org/els/emp/howdoesyourcountrycompare-greece...
Short-term comparisons of OECD here: http://stats.oecd.org/Index.aspx?DataSetCode=STLABOUR