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The labour market
Employment in Britain has continued to grow and there were falls in both the ILO unemployment rate (5,2%) and the number of people claiming unemployment-related benefits (3,3%). The whole economy headline average earnings growth rate has increased.
In Germany, however, the ILO figure was 7.9% in March 2001 and increased by 0,1% over a month. The economic slow down seems to have reached the German labour market.
Working part time
More than 20% of persons in employment in the United Kingdom are working part-time. This is three percent higher than the EU average. It is significant that 45% of female employees have a part time contract compared to 6% of males. Additionally the proportion of older people working part-time is 50% higher than the EU average.
Table
Long-term unemployment
There has been increasing concern that long-term unemployment is a different problem from that of unemployment generally. It has a self-reinforcing character - the longer a period of unemployment, the harder it is to find work. The existence of long-term unemployment may be associated with the protection afforded by the benefit system, particularly the indefinite persistence of unconditional benefits.
The EU long-term unemployment rate fell over the period 1994-1998, more or less in line with the decrease in the overall unemployment rate. As a result, the proportion of unemployed persons without work for at least twelve months has remained relatively stable for the Union as a whole. However, Germany has witnessed a significant increase while the United Kingdom, on the other hand, has reduced its level of long-term unemployed from 45% in 1994 to 33% in 1998.
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