Observers have followed the Beveridge curve during the recession and the recovery to glean some insight into potential structural changes in the labor market. Whether or not a shift implies an actual structural change—specifically, a decline in the matching efficiency of the labor market—is still debatable. However, one thing is clear: there is no shift … Continue reading
Six years after being struck by economic crisis, Europe is facing a fresh downturn, with few new ideas on the table for reigniting growth and deepening political divisions over the austerity policies that many blame for worsening the malaise… “Europe is at risk of secular stagnation,” said Lawrence H. Summers, a former United States Treasury … Continue reading
Brazil’s economy slipped into recession for the first time in more than five years as investments contracted on lower confidence before the October presidential election. Gross domestic product (GDP) shrank by 0.6% in the April-June period from the previous three months, after contracting a revised 0.2% in the first quarter, the national statistics agency said … Continue reading
An array of Nobel economists have launched a blistering attack on the eurozone’s economic strategy, warning that contractionary policies risk years of depression and a fresh eruption of the debt crisis. “Historians are going to tar and feather Europe’s central bankers,” said Professor Peter Diamond, the world’s leading expert on unemployment. “Young people in Spain … Continue reading
Eurozone GDP still hasnt gotten back to its 2007 level, and doesnt look like it will anytime soon. Indeed, it already wasnt clear if its last recession was even over before we found out the eurozone had stopped growing again in the second quarter. And not even Germany has been immune: its GDP just fell 0.2 percent … Continue reading
Key points (ONS) Change in gross domestic product (GDP) is the main indicator of economic growth. GDP increased by 0.8% in Q2 2014, the second consecutive quarter on quarter increase of 0.8%. Output increased in two of the four main industrial groupings within the economy in Q2 2014 compared with Q1 2014. In order of … Continue reading
When comparing the Great Recession against other advanced economies’ financial crises in recent decades, the current U.S. cycle has outperformed in terms of employment, even as most other measures of financial crises were just as bad — home prices, stock prices, GDP per capita, government debt and the like. Chosen excerpts by Job Market … Continue reading
The use of antidepressants rose significantly in England during the financial crisis and subsequent recession, with 12.5m more pills prescribed in 2012 than in 2007, a study has found. Researchers from the Nuffield Trust and the Health Foundation identified a long-term trend of increasing prescription of antidepressants, rising from 15m items in 1998 to 40m … Continue reading
Suppose you divided workers into two groups, which we designate as type H and type L, and conjectured that the number of newly unemployed workers each month represents a mixture of the two types and further that there are differences in the probabilities that each of the two types will be successful in finding jobs. … Continue reading
Despite many economic indicators improving since the start of the recession, Canada has a significant long-term unemployment problem that is not improving. Statistics Canada’s Table 282-0047 contains detailed monthly data on the number of Canadian unemployed for a specific period of time. While there have been improvements in some labour market indicators, the number of people who … Continue reading
Until recently, the economy and labor market were experiencing an unusually slow recovery from the longest and deepest recession since the Great Depression compared to other expansions since World War II. The rapid decline in the unemployment rate from 7.9% in January to 6.7% in December 2013 (where it remained in the first quarter of … Continue reading
It’s estimated that a whopping 10 million individuals, or 6.6% of all reported jobs, were self-employed in the U.S. as of 2013–however, that figure has declined significantly since the recession, according to a new report from CareerBuilder and Economic Modeling Specialists Intl. (EMSI). The number of self-employed workers is down 9% (936,000 jobs) since the … Continue reading
A survey of French manufacturers found that output contracted and businesses shed jobs in November in response to the fastest slowdown in new orders since April, accentuating the single currency bloc’s sluggish recovery Continue reading
The unemployment rate is the result of millions of individual stories of finding and losing jobs Continue reading
Findings suggest recessions in such circumstances are much costlier and slightly longer Continue reading