The unemployment statistics in the U.S. are improving with the rate in the U.S. falling at 8.3% from 8.5% in January and 8.6% in November 2011. The following graph describes the decline the last seven months.
On the other hand the statistics in Greece become worse and worse. The unemployment rate increases to 20.9% in November from 18.2% a month earlier. At the same time the industrial production fell 11.3% in December.
In contrast to the better-known unemployment rate, which measures the percentage of working-age Americans who are actively seeking jobs but do not have one, the civilian employment-population ratio measures the percentage of working-age Americans who have a job, whether they are seeking one or not.
This distinction matters because the state of an economy affects whether someone looks for a job at all. Bad times discourage potential workers from seeking jobs; boom times encourage marginal workers to seek them. As our population grows, we have more working-age adults who need work. A growing economy needs to replace the jobs we have lost and add new ones to accommodate these added potential workers.
The following graph describes the bleak employment outlook. The drop in employment during the 2007 downturn has been unprecedented. The employment ratio has fallen from the 63% pre-crisis level to 58.5%, and it has constantly been declining during the last three months, at the time that the unemployment rate has remained constant at 9.5%. No other time in the history has seen such a steep decline in employment.
