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The Labor Market

Decent Essays

Introduction The landscape of the labor market is a critical factor in the economic comparison of different countries. Countries with a friendly job market are economically stronger because such an economy is able to achieve high living standards for its citizens. This paper therefore endeavors to explore some of the trends in the labor market in the US, EU, Japan and China Unemployment Rates As per August 2016 the unemployment rate was reported to be at 4.9% percent by the Bureau of Labor Statistics and this is the first time the unemployment rate fell below 5% since 2008. However, despite the fall in unemployment rates it is worth considering that only a few of the adults are working. Only 62.7% of the adult Americans are working and this has been so since the late 1970s.n On the other hand, the unemployment rate in the EU was rated at 10.2% in April which is the lowest rate since 2011. In the EU, Greece is by far the country with the highest unemployment rate of 23.3% particularly due to its economic meltdown. On the other hand Malta and Germany have recorded the lowest unemployment rates in 2016 of about 4%. In Asia, the unemployment rate in China by June 2016 was rated to be 4.05%. In the first half of 2016, 7.17 million jobs were created in the majority of the Chinese urban cities therefore accounting for 71.7% of China’s yearly target of 10 million jobs. In Japan, the jobless rate rose to 3.1 % in August 2016 from 3.0% in July. The unemployment rate in Japan

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