EU-DIGEST

The rate of 9.5 percent in January, was unchanged from December, Eurostat said.

In the eurozone, which is made up of the 16 countries that share the euro as currency, unemployment held steady at 9.9 percent in January, the European Union's statistical office said.

Labels: employment, EU

Labels: employment, EU

Labels: Economy, employment, US

New US jobless claims fall 550,000 in week

The United States had 6.310 million workers claiming unemployment benefits, up from 6.241 million in the week ended on July 18. Widely considered a lagging indicator, unemployment is expected to get worse even as the economy begins to stabilise and recover from the worst slump since the Great Depression was easing.

Note EU-Digest: The latest so-called positive unemployment data which has been jumped on by the Wallstreet "casino" and boosted stock market numbers around the world is somewhat bogus to say the least. The fact is that the drop in unemployment even as job losses continued to mount was the result of two separate surveys, one of individuals and a smaller one of employers. Eugenio Aleman, a senior economist at Wells Fargo, explained the shock figures by saying that a significant number of disenchanted workers had left the labor force and weren't therefore listed as unemployed. "I was surprised about the unemployment number coming down to 9.4 percent, but that was because of people dropping out of the labor force, so that is probably not going to be repeated in the future," Aleman said. Unemployment could still hit as high as 10 percent, even with an improving economy, he warned.The goods-producing sector lost 128,000 jobs, including 52,000 in manufacturing. But the agency estimated the auto sector added 28,000 jobs due to recalls from extensive plant shutdowns earlier this year. The services sector shed 119,000 jobs including 44,000 in retail. Sectors adding jobs were education and health care (17,000); leisure and hospitality (9,000); and government (7,000). The number of people unemployed for 27 weeks or more rose by 584,000 over the month to 5.0 million.

Labels: employment, US Economy

15 million out of work in euro zone

Official EU figures show that the unemployment rate in the euro zone climbed to a 10-year high of 9.5% in May. 273,000 jobs were lost across the euro zone in May, the EU's Eurostat data agency estimated. Although activity in the recession-hit European economy is beginning to pick up, many companies are continuing to cut jobs in order to survive the worst post-war downturn.Eurostat estimated that in total 21.5 million people were unemployed across the EU in May, of which 15 million were in the euro area.

Labels: Economy, employment, EU

EU employment sees steepest drop in first quarter

More than 1.9 million jobs were lost in the first quarter of this year in the 27-nation European Union, the steepest fall on record, official figures showed on Monday.
The number of people hired in the EU dropped by 0.8 percent in the first quarter compared with the previous quarter, the sharpest drop since 1995 when record started, said the EU statistics agency Eurostat. The tally of people employed in the 16-nation euro zone fell by 0.8 percent as well quarter-on-quarter, meaning that 1.2 million jobs were lost. Eurostat said that around 223.8 million people were hired in the EU in the first three month of this year, 146 million of them in the euro zone.

Labels: employment, EU

Working With the Wind: Growing Employment in the European and US Wind Power Sectors - Alasdair Cameron

A new report published by the European Wind Energy Association looks at the rapidly growing wind sector jobs market, throwing up some interesting trends, and highlighting a number of opportunities and challenges for the future. In these days of economic doom and gloom, ‘green jobs’ has become a familiar refrain among political leaders seeking to articulate a vision for the future. In Europe and North America, environmental technology is being increasingly touted as the next big thing. As one senior British politician recently put it, ‘there has been enough financial engineering, it is time for some real engineering.’ As with so many things in the world of renewable energy, Germany is the leader in wind energy employment, accounting for nearly 38,000 direct jobs, rising to 84,300 if indirect employment is included. In many ways this lead is unsurprising given its long-term position as one of the major wind energy markets, and indeed with more than 23,000 MW of working wind, it remains the country with the second highest installed wind power capacity (having just been overtaken by the US in 2008).

Labels: employment, Labor market, Renewable Energy, Windpower

Euro Trades Near Three-Week High Against Dollar as Stocks Rise and unemployment drops in Germany - Andrew MacAskill

The euro traded near a three-week high against the dollar as European stocks advanced for a fourth day and a report showed unemployment declined in Germany, the region’s largest economy. The currency shared by 15 European nations gained versus the Brazilian real and Canadian dollar as every major stock market in the region rose. German unemployment dropped in November, withstanding the worst recession in 12 years. Indian rupee forwards fell on speculation overseas investors will shun the nation’s assets after terrorist attacks in Mumbai prompted regulators to shut markets.

Labels: employment, EU, euro, Germany

US Economy - 84,000 jobs cut in Aug.; jobless rate hits 5-year high of 6.1% - by Sue Kirchhof

US businesses shed 84,000 jobs in August as the unemployment rate soared to a five-year peak of 6.1%, the Labor Department said Friday in a report providing stark evidence that the economy is foundering. Fully 2.2 million Americans have lost their jobs in the past 12 months, as the unemployment rate has climbed from 4.7%. So far in 2008, firms have laid off 605,000 workers, with job losses averaging 76,000 a month.

Labels: employment, US Economy

German Unemployment Drops to Lowest in 15 1/2 Years - by Rainer Buergin

German unemployment fell more than expected in March to the lowest level since August 1992 as worldwide demand for cars, sports shoes and factory machinery prompted companies to add staff. The jobless rate, adjusted for seasonal swings, declined to 7.8 percent from 8 percent in February, the Federal Labor Agency in Nuremberg said today. The median forecast in a Bloomberg News survey of 32 economists was for a decline to 7.9 percent. ``The progress achieved in the German labor market is tremendous,'' said Stephan Rieke, an economist at BHF-Bank AG in Frankfurt.

Labels: employment, EU, Germany, Labor

US Economy: Jobs plunge by 63,000, worst since 2003; Fed steps in - by Barbara Hagenbaugh

Employers cut jobs for a second month in February while the unemployment rate fell as more people quit looking for work in the weakening job market, the government said Friday in a report that led to further calls of a 2008 recession. The Federal Reserve, shortly before the report was released, underscored its concern for the economy by saying it will pump more cash into financial markets to try to ease credit. The Fed said it will raise its planned March 10 and March 24 auctions to $50 billion each, from $30 billion it had previously announced. The auctions serve as short-term loans to get banks the cash they need to keep lending.

Labels: employment, US Economy

Germany surprises with big drop in unemployment for December - by Mark Landler

"Of all the measures of Germany's economic revival over the last two years, none may be more telling than this one: There are 711,000 fewer people out of work here than in 2006 and 1.5 million fewer than in 2005, when unemployment peaked at more than five million. The German government released employment data for December on Thursday, surprising experts again, this time with a larger-than-expected decline of 78,000 unemployed, adjusted for seasonal factors. Economists had expected the number of people out of work to fall by 25,000. It was the 21st consecutive month of falling numbers."

Labels: employment, EU, Germany

EC says growth,jobs strategy is working

The European Union (EU)'s flagship strategy for growth and jobs is working now, three years after it was relaunched in 2005, the European Commission said on Tuesday. The Lisbon strategy, named after the Portuguese capital where it was initially adopted by EU member states in 2000, is contributing to the recent much improved performance of the EU economy, the commission said in its strategic report on economic reform across Europe. Previously aimed at making the EU "the most dynamic and competitive knowledge-based economy in the world" by 2010, the bold strategy was later watered down and was relaunched in 2005, which is organized around three-year cycle, with clear focus on growth and jobs.

Thanks to the structural reform carried out under the strategy, the EU registered a remarkable economic growth of 3.0 percent last year, the fastest pace since the beginning of this decade. Economic growth in the 27-nation bloc is expected to remain at 2.9 percent in 2007.

Labels: Economy, employment, EU