The European Job Market

Posted on | May 26, 2009 | No Comments

On a recent flight, I spoke with a woman named Meryl, who was, like so many, lamenting losing her job and wondering aloud what to do next.  We were both on our way to Maui–me for R&R, her for a friend’s wedding.  My seatmate shared with me that she was considering chucking it all and moving to some fantasy city ala Under the Tuscan Sun.  She was considering someplace in the Italian or French countryside, and, perhaps, someplace in Prague.  I loved the idea and shared with her how much I cherished my DVD of the movie like a bucket list.  We indulged our shared fantasy of packing it off to a fabulous life in Europe for a while.

But, then, me being me and always thinking with my “work brain”, I just had to rain on her parade.  I informed my friend that, even if she could secure a visa sans job, and scrounge up the cash for a villa, she might run into a big roadblock–Europe’s job market is no better than our own.

Meryl was shocked and disappointed to find that France had an 8.8% unemployment rate (only 0.1% less than the U.S.) and Italy was at 7.1% and expected to rise to 9.2% by year’s end.  Prague, her “also-ran” destination, is looking a bit more promising with a 5.5% unemployment rate.

Once I’d snuffed out her dreams, Meryl was open to other European destinations, as long as they had lower unemployment rates.  I showed Meryl a list of the unemployment rates for European Union countries.  Given Europe’s unemployment rates, looks like our Under the Tuscan Sun redux is going to be more like Under a Foot of Snow.

U.S. vs. EU Unemployment Rate

• United States (8.9%)
• European Union (8.9%)

European Countries With Lowest Unemployment Rates

1. Netherlands (3.0%)
2. Austria (4.5%)
3. Cyprus (4.9%)
4. Slovenia (5.0%)
5. Denmark (5.7%)
6. Bulgaria (5.9%)

Source: Eurostat, Bureau of Labor Statistics

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