Economic Integration

Annual hours worked per employed person, 1996 and 2006 In both years, Koreans worked the most hours annually. The Republic of Korea and Ireland experienced the largest reductions in annual hours . Source: US Dept of Labor; Report: A Chartbook Of International Labor Comparisons: The Americas, Asia-Pacific, Europe — January 2008; http://www.dol.gov/asp/media/reports/chartbook/2008-01/index.htm

Unemployment rates, 2006 Most of the European countries had higher unemployment rates than the US. The Republic of Korea, Norway, and Mexico had the lowest unemployment rates.

Unemployment rates for youth, 2006 Italian teenagers had the highest unemployment rate, followed by their counterparts in Sweden and France. Unemployment rates for teenagers were higher than those for 20- 24

Persons unemployed one year or longer, 2006 as a % of total unemployment Long-duration unemployment was least prevalent in the Republic of Korea and Mexico. The EU-15 countries combined had a relatively high percentage of persons unemployed one year or longer. More than half of the unemployed were without work for at least one year in Germany, Italy, and Portugal.

Different European countries deal with the problem of unemployment differently:

• Different European countries deal with the problem of unemployment differently:
• France and England
• Incentive to substitute part time jobs and temporary workers
• Germany
• “job centers" to help unemployed find work
• Agency to employ jobless people and hire them out to private companies as temporary workers; lose benefits if refuse offer
• unemployed required taking pay cut
• Decrease in benefits during the 1 year of unemployment, the workers will receive 60% of what they earned, after 1 year unemployed they receive flat payment 345 euro per month and payments for kids and costs for housing and heating, free healthcare.
• young singles may have to travel to another part of the country; must justify refusal to take job offered
• Reduction in maximum period of unemployment benefits
• Tax incentives to encourage people to set themselves up as self-employed