In the modern economy if jobs are hard to come by people will drop out of the labour force and stay at home. They do other things: go back to school, look after the kids or retire early. Dropping out of the labour force actually means dropping off the official survey. They actually are available to work and do so when the economy improves. The official unemployment figure self adjusts to the jobs available, is totally unreliable. Here is international data on the situation. This chart is from Statistics Canada and they point out that Canada is at the top of the heap. In fact the employment rate for Alberta, adjusted for this data, is 73% - 10% above the Canadian average. In Canada there is a ways to go yet.
The main stream media report that Italy is doing well, has a modern economy with low unemployment. When I found this chart I showed it to some Italian immigrants here in Canada and they immediately said they knew no one was working. They said things like the young people live off the parents pension, that the place was crazy. I note Italy posted strong growth.
By Bruce_the_vii at 2008-08-11
Apparently the OECD mandates that member countries collect unemployment data and something called the International Labour Organization sets the standard as to how to do this, what questions to ask in a survey. As a result the world over leaders are using bad information, the official unemployment figure. Economists individually cannot effectively question an international standard.
[ 14 August 2008: Message edited by: bruce_the_vii ]
[ 14 August 2008: Message edited by: bruce_the_vii ]
[ 14 August 2008: Message edited by: bruce_the_vii ]
[ 14 August 2008: Message edited by: bruce_the_vii ]
Email this thread to someone!
posted 14 August 2008 08:44 PM
