Dennis R Redmond wrote:
>Western German unemployment would be roughly 7%, if not for the annexation
>of the former GDR. Britain's low unemployment is due to sleazy Tory
>redefinitions of the unemployed and a vicious war on the poor, which have
>driven people off the welfare rolls and into the nether gulfs of
>ragpicking capitalism.
According to the OECD, UK unemployment in 1996 (the most recent year
available) was 8.0%, and in Germany, 10.3%, using "commonly accepted
definitions," which I assume means what national statistical offices
report. But using harmonized definitions, that gap narrowed substantially,
with the UK at 8.2% and Germany at 8.9%. The U.S. Bureau of Labor
Statistics, which also tries to harmonize definitions, reports that UK
unemployment in 97Q3 was 6.9%, and Germany, 7.8%.
Mark Jones's assertion that UK per capita incomes are now higher than
German ones is something I hadn't heard before. The first two columns show
the OECD's estimates for 1995 reported in their handy little booklet, the
OECD In Figures, 1997 Edition; the third column shows the latest figures
available from International Financial Statistics, converted at market
exchange rates:
market PPP 97Q3
Germany $29,542 20,497 24,597
UK 18,777 17,756 22,113
Doug
