Group items tagged

This article talks about the UK government setting a minimum wage which probably will create unemployment as we read in the weekly reading activities.

This article discusses how a flexible labor market model can only lead to less permanent-job contracts, lower wages, and even lead to eventual unemployment. For example, the share of employees with temporary contracts is much higher in the EU than in Romania, however, it has been noted that the EU has higher unemployment rates than Romania... Further consequences of the implementation of a flexible labor market model are also evaluated. Link to "What is a Flexible Labour Market?": http://tutor2u.net/economics/revision-notes/a2-macro-flexible-labour-markets.html

"China's inflation could hit five percent this year due to soaring commodity prices and rising wages" Asia is currently facing cost push inflation.

The lowering prices of Madagascar's vanilla, lower the wages for the farmers in this industry, which causes some of them to leave their crops. They earn a little over $1.50 per day, due to the new low costs of the crops ($500 per kilo before, and now $30 the kilo). These low prices are essentially caused by competition and the new popularity for synthetically produced spices such as vanilla.

The article discusses the reason why India's private sector employment is relatively low given the high economic development and prosperity. Wages are said to not have risen to levels suggested by per capita income figures and this has been attributed to the plethora of cumbersome laws and regulations that govern Indian labour markets. Due to the inflexibility, private sector employers respond by not hiring too many workers in the first place due to fear of disputes. At least 45 laws exist at the national level, and up to 4 times as many at the state level. The author cites a change in government's attitudes to labour market as the remedy to India's unemployment.

This article is about a rising concern over inflation in China. Pressures from oil, agricultural commodities and wages are the main contributors to the inflation in China and the Chinese government is having difficulty to control them.