Unemployment Worldwide

Although there has been some economic recovery in some areas, many others including the employment industry, have not done as well. Experts are saying that the recovery we are experiencing will not be enough to make a dent in the current unemployment rates, which have reached a twenty six year high.

If the definition of unemployed is loosened and ‘discouraged workers’, ‘marginally attached workers’ and ‘total employed part-time for economic reasons’ are included, the national unemployment rate would be more around 17 percent.

Double-digit unemployment has taken over 30 percent of the U.S. while around 40 percent saw unemployment rates increase between August and September. Relative to population, D.C. is leading the nation in its unemployment drop with rates going from 11.1 percent to 11.4 percent loosing almost 11,000 jobs.

Since the latest report, employers have totaled around 2,561 mass layoffs resulting in 248,006 individual job losses driving unemployment climb well into 2010. The AP says that many of the 7.2 million jobs lost or revoked since ’07 may not be available again.

However, Obama’s $787 billion fiscal stimulus package may rain some benefits on recovery. Six hundred thousand to 1.5 million jobs have been added as of August and in addition, a predicted growth of 3.7 percent for the third quarter may be in sight.

Outside of the US, countries are seeing similar drops. Mexico’s unemployment has hit a 14-year high at 6.41 percent, Spain has hit 17.9 percent, and the UK is up to 7.9 percent. Meanwhile other countries have experienced slight decreases in their unemployment rates with a 0.3-drop to 8.4 percent for Canada and 0.2-drop to 5.5 percent for Japan.