This article is brought to you in association with OECD. The OECD area employment rate – the share of the working-age population with jobs – increased by 0.2 percentage point in the first quarter of 2018, to 68.2%, with gains in 28 out of 36 OECD countries. Higher employment rates occurred alongside a higher labour force […]OECD employment rate increases to 68.2% in the first quarter of 2018
July 23, 2018 by Leave a Comment
This article is brought to you in association with OECD. The OECD area employment rate – the share of the working-age population with jobs – increased by 0.2 percentage point in the first quarter of 2018, to 68.2%, with gains in 28 out of 36 OECD countries. Higher employment rates occurred alongside a higher labour force […]OECD: Rising employment overshadowed by unprecedented wage stagnation
July 5, 2018 by Leave a Comment
This story is brought to you in association with the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, OECD The OECD Employment Outlook 2018 says that the employment rate for people aged 15-74 in the OECD area (36 countries) reached 61.7% in the OECD area at the end of 2017. For the first time there are […]ECB intervenes to clean May’s and Schäuble’s mess
June 12, 2017 by Leave a Comment
Last Thursday 8 June, on the day the Britons were punishing Theresa May for her mistakes and arrogance, the European Central Bank under Mario Draghi was preparing for a less favorable politico-economic environment and a much longer disinflationary period. Indirectly, Mario Draghi blamed the dying out inflation on the avowed neoliberals, of the kind of […]Unemployment and exclusion brings EU cities to boiling point
June 3, 2016 by Leave a Comment
Last Tuesday Eurostat, the EU statistical service release its latest estimates about the April unemployment rate and May inflation in Eurozone, which unfortunately didn’t diverge markedly from the gloomy predictions of analysts. This week however, the same source published a very interesting survey about the labor market situation in EU. It’s a special report about […]Real EU unemployment rate at 10.2%+4.1%+4.7%: Eurostat Update
May 23, 2016 by Leave a Comment
This newspaper has been closely following the evolution of real unemployment over the past few years, on the base of Eurostat statistics. It has proved that real unemployment is much higher than the official rates. In January 2014 the European Sting, using Eurostat data, found that, in the third quarter of 2013 real unemployment was […]Conflicting statistics and bad banks haunt the Eurozone
May 19, 2016 by Leave a Comment
Last week, Eurostat, the EU statistical service, released its flash estimate of the GDP of the first quarter of 2016, finding it, in both the Eurozone and the EU28, to be 0.5% bigger in comparison to the previous period. In the fourth quarter of 2015, GDP had also grown by 0.3% and 0.4% respectively. Does […]Why do overwhelming proportions of EU’s youth feel excluded?
May 16, 2016 by 1 Comment
The Eurobarometer, the public opinion analysis tool of the European Commission, interviewed 10,294 Europeans aged between 16 and 30 in the 28 EU member states between 9 and 25 April 2016, and found that most of them feel economically and socially marginalized by the crisis. Of course, there are incredible differences among the member state countries, […]Eurozone’s central bank leadership prepares for shoddier prospects
May 4, 2016 by Leave a Comment
It has become commonplace to state that the European economy still doesn’t fare well after six years of recession or practical stagnation. For good reasons however in the past few days the horizon looked particularly darkened. Negative statistical evidence and meandering statements by key people are indicative of that. Inflation or rather disinflation statistics, persistently […]No hard drivers in sight to remodel the stagnating affairs of the EU
April 21, 2016 by Leave a Comment
It’s a tautological statement to say that the euro area is an economy which barely moves ahead, towards producing more jobs and incomes for the tens of millions of the unemployed and materially deprived. However, it seems that it’s worse than that. Mario Draghi, the President of the European Central Bank, said it plainly in […]Unemployment and immigrants haunt the EU; who can offer relief?
December 10, 2015 by Leave a Comment
On Tuesday 1st December, Eurostat the EU statistical service reminded us all that in the euro area the October unemployment rate still remained in the double digit region with 10.7%. Understandably, this is the official percentage of people without a job, while the real unemployment rate may be double that, as this newspaper has proved, […]G20 LIVE: “Re-envisioning the economy to enable women to reach their full potential” live from Antalya Turkey
November 16, 2015 by Leave a Comment
Gender inequality pervades G20 economies and beyond. Women carry out the vast majority of unpaid labor around the world and are vastly overrepresented in informal, insecure and vulnerable employment. They are also subject to occupational discrimination and lack access to social protection and pension systems. Women’s unemployment accounts for three quarters of the global job […]The Commission sees ‘moderate recovery’ but prospects deteriorate
November 9, 2015 by Leave a Comment
The European Commission released last week its “Autumn 2015 Economic Forecast”, advertising ‘moderate recovery’ for the European Union and the euro area. Understandably, the Commission wouldn’t dig deeper in the economy, to highlight the negative aspects of the present status and the subdued prospects for next year. For a number of important reasons the executive […]Why impoverishment and social exclusion grow in the EU; the affluent north also suffers
October 22, 2015 by 2 Comments
The European Union which mobilizes its warships to keep the flows of poor and destitute refugees and immigrants out of its supposedly prosperous interior, at the same is impotent to offer to its own citizens not a prosperous life but not even a secure economic and social environment. According to Eurostat, the EU’s statistical service, […]Why EU’s working and unemployed millions remain uncertain or even desperate about their future
June 25, 2015 by Leave a Comment
Statistical data for the Eurozone economy paint a rather misty picture. Labour costs, an indicator which can fairly describe the evolution of the total volume of wages, marks a distinct increase signaling a clear betterment of the situation of the working classes. On top of that, May inflation at 0.3% indicates that the rate of […]Counting unemployment in the EU: The real rate comes to anything between 16.1% and 20.6%
April 30, 2015 by Leave a Comment
Eurostat, the EU statistical service, repeated with more recent figures its memorable work on the real unemployment rate, that appeared for the first time in 2014 based on data for the third quarter of 2013. This time the Eurostat researchers worked with data for the last quarter of 2014. The new results they produced refer […]Can the national and age groups pockets of unemployment cause irreparable damages to Eurozone?
April 13, 2015 by Leave a Comment
It’s a bit awkward to consider a drop of the unemployment rate by one decimal point of a percentage unit as economic growth, and call it a reversal to the positive region, as some Brussels dignitaries and bureaucrats do. Incidentally, the euro area unemployment rate fell to 11.3% in February, down from 11.4% in January […]The EU can afford to invest trillions in support of employment
July 24, 2014 by Leave a Comment
Eurostat, the EU statistical service, has recently released data showing that, while the government indebtedness increases, the industrial production retreats. Of course Eurozone doesn’t run any danger of losing its competitive edge in world markets. European goods and services exports usually leave a solid positive result, so the Union and more so the Eurozone don’t […]Is Europe misjudging its abilities to endure more austerity and unemployment?
July 8, 2014 by Leave a Comment
The European Economic and Social Committee (EESC) worries about the “effectiveness of EU policies in bringing young generations back into the labour market”, and quite rightfully so. A steady stream of statistics confirms the assessment that the European economy has entered into a long-term stagnation and very low inflation period without visible exit from it, […]Why youth unemployment is so difficult to counter
June 10, 2014 by Leave a Comment
With the unemployment rate of the young under 25 around 2.6 times higher than the overall percentage of people without a job in the European Union, an existential and fact-based question arises; does the EU really need a next generation of workers and consumers? Or rather, have the decision makers, in the political and economic […]The EU Commission openly repudiates the austere economic policies
May 20, 2014 by Leave a Comment
László Andor, Commissioner for Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion while delivering the opening address at the conference on Social policy innovation yesterday in Brussels, must have known that Eurostat, the EU statistical service, was to announce almost simultaneously that the rate of employment of people aged 20-64 fell to 68.3% in 2013, for a fifth […]The true EU unemployment rate may have soared to 21.9%
April 11, 2014 by Leave a Comment
On top of the 26.2 million of the unemployed, averaging at 12% of EU’s working age population, there is another 10 million of underemployed par-timers who want to work more but they don’t find employment, plus 11.5 million more of working age persons who are available to work but not seeking (9.3 million) or seeking […]Youth unemployment: No light at the end of the tunnel
April 8, 2014 by Leave a Comment
Last Friday the European Economic and Social Committee (EESC) held a public hearing on the implementation of European Union policies to counter youth employment. EESC is a consultative body made up by representatives of Europe’s socio-occupational interest groups and others (employers, workers and various interest groups). It gives its members a platform to express their […]EU citizens disenchanted with Economic and Monetary Union over rising poverty and high unemployment
April 5, 2014 by Leave a Comment
In a historic meeting, Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion Commissioner, László Andor, and local and regional European leaders elaborated yesterday on the shortcomings of Europe’s growth strategy and agreed that a reform is needed on the principles of Eurozone’s Economic and Monetary Union (EMU). They also took stock of the poor performance of the Youth […]EU Commission: a rise in wages and salaries may help create more jobs
April 2, 2014 by Leave a Comment
The Eurozone unemployment rate in February remained stubbornly stuck at the high level of 11.9% since October 2013. According to Eurostat, the EU’s statistical service, the EU28 unemployment rate was 10.6% in February 2014, one decimal point lower than the 10.7% of January this year. Let’s dig a bit into unemployment. On an absolute number […]EU Commission says falling labour remuneration leads to deflation and damages growth prospects
April 1, 2014 by 1 Comment
The social situation in the European Union keeps degrading and in many countries it has compromised the social cohesion. Yesterday the EU Commission published its quarterly review on “Employment and Social Situation”, with the unbelievable conclusion that, “The recent economic recovery has not yet been able to create new jobs and the social situation […]High unemployment to continue haunting the EU
March 1, 2014 by Leave a Comment
Eurostat, the EU statistical service, revealed yesterday that the “euro area (EA18) seasonally-adjusted unemployment rate was 12% in January 2014, unchanged since October 2013”. The number of people without a job though increased in January 2014 to 19,175 from 19,158 thousand in December 2013. The rate of unemployment remains obstinately stuck to those very high […]The EU Commission predicts a decimated growth in the next years
February 26, 2014 by Leave a Comment
Yesterday, the European Commission after acknowledging that unemployment will continue ravaging more than half of Eurozone in the foreseeable future and predicting for this and next year a 0.1% ‘strengthening’ of the quite anemic growth rate, it found the courage to state that, “Recovery is gaining ground in Europe”. A lot of courage and probably […]Who really cares about the 26.2 million of EU jobless?
February 4, 2014 by Leave a Comment
Yesterday, Eurostat, the EU statistical service, published an update of unemployment statistics for the European Union covering the period up to December 2013. In that month 26.200 million men and women in the EU-28, of whom 19.010 million were in the euro area (EA-17), were unemployed. Eurostat estimates that “Compared with November 2013, the number […]Eurozone: In vicious cycle of disinflation and unemployment?
February 1, 2014 by 1 Comment
Eurostat, the EU statistical service, announced late yesterday evening that in December unemployment remained at the persistently high level of 12% since October, while inflation took a new downwards turn to 0.7% in January, from 0.8% in December. It’s difficult to say which one of the two developments is more alarming. On both accounts Eurozone […]Commission: Raising the social issues that can make or break the monetary union
January 22, 2014 by 1 Comment
For the first time the European Commission recognises that the severe austerity measures enforced in the crisis hit Eurozone countries in the south of Europe, in Ireland and elsewhere, have undermined not only the well-being and the level of social protection there, but undercut also the very ability of those member states to regain non-cost […]Eurostat: Real unemployment double than the official rate
January 21, 2014 by 4 Comments
Gender distribution in selected labour categories, age 15-74, EU-28, 2012 (Eurostat graph) Eurostat, the EU statistical service, revealed that the true unemployment rate in Eurozone during the third quarter of 2013 was much higher than the ‘officially’ recognised percentage of 11.5%, according to the definition of UN’s International Labour Organisation. Including the three forms of […]Eurozone: A Sluggish economy offers no extra jobs
January 9, 2014 by Leave a Comment
Eurostat, the EU statistical service, released yesterday some mixed data on Eurozone economic prospects. For one thing, euro area (EA17) unemployment rate was reported at 12.1% in November 2013, stubbornly stable at this high level since last April. The EU28 unemployment rate was 10.9%, stable since last May. However, retail sales marked a good upturn […]German and French bankers looted the Irish and Spanish unemployed
December 30, 2013 by 1 Comment
According to a Commission‘s new ‘on-line state aid to banks benchmarking tool’ published on 20 December, between October 2008 and December 2012 the EU member states provided €591.9 billion (4.6 % of EU 2012 GDP) of capital support (recapitalisation and asset relief measures) to the financial sector (banks). It was not only that. The same […]
