Trabajar, Trabajar, Trabajar

So whilst on my weekly jaunt through the OECD I happened up some updated figures for long term unemployment, ie- the percent of those unemployed that have been so for a year or more.

The reason I particularly like this stat is that it is a function of two things;

1. How lazy a people are in a particular country
2. How generous (or stingy) that country’s unemployment benefits are.

However, this time around they included two countries I hadn’t noticed before;

Mexico and Korea.




CRIPES!!!

Barely 1% of people unemployed in these countries, have been unemployed for over a year. Contrast that with 13% in the US and I’m almost half tempted to believe there are actually jobs Americans won’t work that Mexicans will.

That being said, it’s not like 13% is atrocious. Now if you want atrocious, why just take a swim across the Atlantic to our European counter parts where you can find countries like Germany, Italy, Greece and the Slovak Republic where OVER HALF THE UNEMPLOYED PEOPLE HAVE BEEN SO FOR OVER A YEAR!

Alas, given the protests in France against the labor market reforms, not to mention the protests against Schroeder’s Hartz IV reforms, it seems Europe has no intention on changing.