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This article discusses how Australia's unemployment rate fell unexpectedly. Unemployment decreased to 5.1% from 5.2% in July in a time in which a Bloomberg survey of 23 economists predicted it to increase to 5.3%. The reason given for this is that the labor participation rate slumped to lowest level in more than five years, a sign workers looking for jobs have exited the labor force. Unemployment had been expected to rise - although the economy grew by about 4% on the back of a strong resource industry, a stronger currency and slower global growth led to job reductions at companies including Ford and Qantas. Employment in the states of Victoria and South Australia dropped 14,800 and 9,000 respectively, but increased by 6,900 in Western Australia and 5,800 in Queensland which are centers of the resource industry.

Germany's unemployment rates have been rising as firms are dropping their demand for labor. In many cases, firms are not firing workers, but they are also not hiring new workers, which causes an increase in unemployment rates as the labor force increases. Although Germany's unemployment remains low (5.4%) compared to other members of the European Union, the rise in unemployment rates is worrying as it could lead to a fall in aggregate demand and lead to recession. Right now, Germany is still growing at a rate of over 1% per year, which is why the higher unemployment rates are considered seasonal, as mentioned in the article. However, if people start losing jobs and there is no labor demand in the long-run, this could trigger a recession and a permanent cyclical unemployment.

The article describes how unemployment in Argentina has dropped below 7% for the first time in a long time. The decreased unemployment is due to an increase in the country's exports and an increase in national aggregate demand. Both of these things would cause an increase in aggregate supply, which in result would increase the aggregate supply of labor, causing the unemployment rate to decrease. However, this is only seen as a short term change, as the export are expected to decrease due to the economic crisis in Europe, and the increasing movement of production to china, and the growing competition from Chinese produced goods, because of the cheaper prices. This would cause aggregate demand in Argentina to decrease, which would cause a response from the short run aggregate supply, in the form or a decrease. This would again cause the aggregate supply of labor to fall back down again, resulting in the unemployment rate rising again.

The author is defending the single number UE rate as a measure of an economy's well being. His core point, some countries don't encourage working to the same degree as the US. In other words, some countries policies instead encourage people to stay home (and care chldren, for example). Thus, the labor force participation rate for such a country (Germany, in this case) is lower. So, in this sense, to know if the economy is doing well, the UE, as measured against the labor force, is a better single measure.

Ireland's high current unemployment rate of 14.9 percent is a result from its economic situation : Ireland is in a recession. The article clearly stipulates this, there is a 'recession in the real domestic economy'. The recession arose from the housing bubble : mortgages were cheap, people overborrowed and then the high housing prices fell so that people were less wealthy and no longer able to pay their mortgages. Wealth is a determinant of AD. It is the added value of all assets or stocks. If wealth or perceived wealth increases, then so will a household's consumption of goods, thereby shifting demand, as the household feels 'wealthier' or able to purchase more. The reverse is also the case, when wealth declines, demand declines, such as in Ireland. The Irish were much less willing to consume goods, as they believed they were less wealthy or had less money( which they eventually did , upon having to pay mortgages; debt), and so consumption decreased, which thus shifted aggregate demand into a demand slide recession. This is a situation where prices in a nation inflate and output decreases, due to the lesser demand. If less is being produced, less factors of production are required. Thus labor, a major factor of production is no longer required in the economy, which gives firms the incentive to lay off many of their workers. This is the unemployment Ireland is experiencing. It is interesting that the article also depicts the  'austerity drive'  that the Irish government resulted to in the recession.  As it correctly suggests, this is 'self defeating', as during a demand slide recession the Keynesian policy follows that the government should not save its funding, but rather spend. In a time of recession, the government should spend,  so as to decrease unemployment stimulate the economy. If the government spends, this will have a multiplier effect through the economy, as it provides income to households ( by spending, the government employs labor), where househo

This article discusses the changes which European Union officials are planning for the future in order to ensure economic growth. One of the changes mentioned are the Spanish borrowing costs which will be pushed up to their highest levels for four months. In the short-run this will mean less spending from consumers, but in the long run will ensure a significant decrease in debt. Furthermore, they have called on national governments to "implement a series of job-creating policies". These include cutting labor-related taxes, as well as shifting the burden to property, energy and emission levels. These particular changes will cause a rightward shift in aggregate demand as there is an increase in government spending. Moreover, countries will be forced to lift remaining restrictions on worker movement within the EU, which will allow for more employment. This will also cause a rightward shift in aggregate demand because there will be more employed workers and therefore amount of consumption will increase as more people will be able to spend more money.  Overall, this article shows improvements for the future which will increase aggregate demand of the EU. 

This article discusses the severe rising level of unemployment in Greece. Unemployment rates rose to approximately 24.4% this summer and 55% of young people aged 14 to 24 are unemployed. The reasons behind this high unemployment are that a high percentage of the Greek workforce is employed by the government (about 25%) and these employees receive large unreported subsidies and bonuses. Also, Greece suffers from a large amount of tax evasion, causing it to struggle to pay the high number of government workers. Consequently, Greece had to cut 100,000 government jobs, causing unemployment to rise. Unemployment was high in the first place because of the deep recession which started in 2007. The high unemployment in Greece has further knock on effects on its economy, particularly if the majority of those unemployed are of the younger generation. A young workforce with no jobs means that once the older generation retires, the younger generation will want to take over their jobs but they will not have the experience to do so. Also, they will lose incentive to work hard as they are used to not having jobs. 

1/4th of the labor force in Greece was being employed by the Greek government. However the government borrowed a lot of money and that means that the government workforce will end up decreasing dramatically sooner or later, and that happened.  Their economy has shrunk around 20% since 2008. The article also told us that 'Moody's Analytics predicts that the Greek economy won't start growin gagain until 2015, at the earliest". That is bad for Greece because it will take very long and be very hard for it to become a stable and strong economy again. 

The article discusses how the unemployment rate in Turkey increases unlike any other EU country. In March the Employment rate went from 10.8 percent in the previous year to 9.9 percent. The number of rural employment was 6.4 percent and the urban employment 11.6 percent. The total number of unemployment decreased 2.6 million and the number of employed people rose to 23.8 million. According to a Turkish economist, Gulay Elif Girgin, in future the unemployment rate will continue to rise and he does not anticipate any unexpected decreases.

The unemployment rate in South Africa falls from 25.2 % to 24.9 % in the second quarter of 2012. This is because the mine companies, the construction companies and the government are starting to hire people again because they have lowered their wages and therefore made it possible for them to increase their labor force and by that decreased the amount of people who are unemployed.

This article talks about the rise in the unemployment rate in France. Unemployment occurs when someone of working age who is willing and able to work and is looking for work is unable to find a job. The unemployment rate is that percentage of the total labor force in a country that is in this situation. This article states that unemployment in France has reached a 13-year high at 10.2%. There have been 3 consecutive quarters of zero growth. Youth unemployment has also risen with the unemployment rate amongst 15 to 24 year-olds now 22.7%. One of the possible solutions for the situation is to wait until the market fixes itself. Pressure on prices of factors of production is decreased due to the smaller number of workers present. Eventually, firms should start buying more factors of production, increasing the country's Real GDP. Since output will then have been increased, more workers will be needed and employment should rise. However, several large French companies have recently announced plans to lay off more workers. This shows that the natural process of getting output back to where it was before the recession is not occurring. France's government has therefore offered a solution: launching a scheme to create 150,000 state-subsidized jobs for young people.