4 ms·

And typically much higher unemployment numbers

by conanbatt 6y ago

r00fus 6y ago
Not these days. Europe is doing much better than the US in terms of unemployment - wonder why?
- rubber_duck 6y ago
  As a European I wouldn't be too fast to gloat - the EU is trying to keep jobs on hold but it's not clear to me what will come out of this - it seems like the restrictions are going to be here for a long time and keeping businesses afloat artificially could end up blocking restructuring. My biggest concern right now is that migration restrictions are going to kill seasonal manual labor migration and government unemployment subsidies will prevent local population from taking up that work - we could end up with major issues in things like crop harvesting.
  - 9HZZRfNlpR 6y ago
    Where is that? Many countries are already taking seasonal workers with 14 day quarantine.
- shuckles 6y ago
  The USA's unemployment rate in March 2020 (4.4%) was lower than the EU's unemployment rate in January 2020 (6.2%) according to a very casual Google search. I'm curious how you're drawing this. Are you saying the EU has lower unemployment today than it did in January?
  - r00fus 6y ago
    It's amusing you post pre-COVID numbers for both regions. Best comparison would be April numbers for both EU and US. The US is around 20% now [1]. The US short-term unemployment numbers are way up, because the US didn't do enough to help small businesses weather the storm, so they laid off their workforce. In contrast the EU supported their businesses and workers and consequently people are taking leave instead of unemployment. [1] https://www.marketwatch.com/story/millions-of-lost-jobs-may-push-unemployment-rate-to-highest-since-great-depression-2020-05-02 https://www.marketwatch.com/story/millions-of-lost-jobs-may-...
    - conanbatt 6y ago
      This is an accounting gimmick. The US has clearer unemployment conditions and also has given relief. In countries in the EU (and it varies a lot) you would see they are still employed, but not working and taking a paycut. That's really the same as unemployed. In any case my comment was about the meaning of having severance in contrast to having a job, not about crisis handling.
    - shuckles 6y ago
      If you meant "these days" as specifically in response to the COVID-19 crisis, we don't have basis for a useful comparison. As another commenter pointed out, the US is delivering economic relief primarily in the form of expanded unemployment coverage whereas Europe is taking a myriad of business support measures. Whether one is better than the other is not obvious yet it's effectively what unemployment numbers would reflect.

And typically much higher unemployment numbers

r00fus 6y ago

Not these days. Europe is doing much better than the US in terms of unemployment - wonder why?

rubber_duck 6y ago
As a European I wouldn't be too fast to gloat - the EU is trying to keep jobs on hold but it's not clear to me what will come out of this - it seems like the restrictions are going to be here for a long time and keeping businesses afloat artificially could end up blocking restructuring. My biggest concern right now is that migration restrictions are going to kill seasonal manual labor migration and government unemployment subsidies will prevent local population from taking up that work - we could end up with major issues in things like crop harvesting.
- 9HZZRfNlpR 6y ago
  Where is that? Many countries are already taking seasonal workers with 14 day quarantine.
shuckles 6y ago
The USA's unemployment rate in March 2020 (4.4%) was lower than the EU's unemployment rate in January 2020 (6.2%) according to a very casual Google search. I'm curious how you're drawing this. Are you saying the EU has lower unemployment today than it did in January?
- r00fus 6y ago
  It's amusing you post pre-COVID numbers for both regions. Best comparison would be April numbers for both EU and US. The US is around 20% now [1]. The US short-term unemployment numbers are way up, because the US didn't do enough to help small businesses weather the storm, so they laid off their workforce. In contrast the EU supported their businesses and workers and consequently people are taking leave instead of unemployment. [1] https://www.marketwatch.com/story/millions-of-lost-jobs-may-push-unemployment-rate-to-highest-since-great-depression-2020-05-02 https://www.marketwatch.com/story/millions-of-lost-jobs-may-...
  - conanbatt 6y ago
    This is an accounting gimmick. The US has clearer unemployment conditions and also has given relief. In countries in the EU (and it varies a lot) you would see they are still employed, but not working and taking a paycut. That's really the same as unemployed. In any case my comment was about the meaning of having severance in contrast to having a job, not about crisis handling.
  - shuckles 6y ago
    If you meant "these days" as specifically in response to the COVID-19 crisis, we don't have basis for a useful comparison. As another commenter pointed out, the US is delivering economic relief primarily in the form of expanded unemployment coverage whereas Europe is taking a myriad of business support measures. Whether one is better than the other is not obvious yet it's effectively what unemployment numbers would reflect.