Unemployment rate

Many firms are finding areas such as Ireland, Scotland, Spain, and southern Italy, where unemployment rates are relatively high and governments offer property tax exemptions, grants toward capital investment, low interest loans, and other incentives, attractive from those standpoints. Some of these areas have developed a good infrastmcture based on businesses already attracted to the area. 

The purchasing budget of a household depend on national economic and social conditions, such as the increase in average personal income, the unemployment rate. 

U.S. Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics, at http //www.bls.gov (last visited Aug. 21, 2002) (July 2002 unemployment rate was +5.9%, preliminary second quarter 2002 worker productivity was +1.1%). 

Let me first talk about the ST E workforce issues that are most evident in the news. First of all, for the technical fields and, actually, for almost all who are well educated, there is a very low unemployment rate—an unemployment rate below that which many economists thought feasible with normal job turnover. In addition, our newspapers frequently publish statements that the unavailability of workers is limiting economic growth in one way or another. Consistent with both, there are constant calls for increases in H-1B visa quotas. 

President Sarkozy campaigned for a society with full employment, which he equated with an unemployment rate of approximately 5%. The term full employment has undergone changes see the short overview by Barbier (2006c). 

Activation was introduced in Swiss social policy in the early 1990s, after a quick and impressive rise in the unemployment rate. Initially, this instrument was applied to unemployment insurance only, but the idea has since spread to other areas of the Swiss welfare state, most importantly social assistance and invalidity insurance. As will be shown below, these two schemes have seen their caseload increase dramatically over the last decade. The rise reflected what had happened with the unemployment rate, but with a 2-3 year time lag, suggesting that some fundamental transformation of the labour market has occurred (see Fig. 9 below). 

O- Spending on unemployment insurance as a percent of GDP Spending on activation as a percent of total spending -A-Unemployment rate... 

Fig. 10. Unemployment rate, total spending on unemployment and spending on ALMPs, 1990-2004...

Spending on ALMPs as a proportion of total spending on unemployment insurance remained stable at around 9% in subsequent years. In absolute terms, of course, it reflects trends in the unemployment rate. This suggests that the sy stem is capable of adapting quickly enough to changes in the rate of unemployment and hence in demand for ALMPs. 

Poverty Rate - - Working poor Rate — - Unemployment Rate... 

Fig. 12. Development of poverty/working poor/unemployment rates...

In 1999 the general aim was to make an earlier effort to get the unemployed into jobs and use a more individualised approach. The focus was directed towards the weakest among the unemployed and the immigrants with insufficient proficiency in the Danish language and a high unemployment rate. The activation period for the unemployed was set to begin after 1 year of unemployment, and the total support period was reduced further from 5 to 4 years. Also, the vocational... 

Generally, the reform process has been a success in terms of bringing down the unemployment rate. However, there are still challenges as a direct result of the reform attempts. 

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