thanks to Alan: unemployment rate

There is also good statistical analysis country by country.

originally posted: http://www.tradingeconomics.com/unemployment-rates-list-by-country

Just how stupid does Mitt Romney think we are? If you’ve been following his campaign from the beginning, that’s a question you have probably asked many times. 

But the question was raised with particular force last week, when Mr. Romney tried to make a closed drywall factory in Ohio a symbol of the Obama administration’s economic failure. It was a symbol, all right — but not in the way he intended. 

First of all, many reporters quickly noted a point that Mr. Romney somehow failed to mention: George W. Bush, not Barack Obama, was president when the factory in question was closed. Does the Romney campaign expect Americans to blame President Obama for his predecessor’s policy failure? 

Yes, it does. Mr. Romney constantly talks about job losses under Mr. Obama. Yet all of the net job loss took place in the first few months of 2009, that is, before any of the new administration’s policies had time to take effect. So the Ohio speech was a perfect illustration of the way the Romney campaign is banking on amnesia, on the hope that voters don’t remember that Mr. Obama inherited an economy that was already in free fall.

Full Story: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/23/opinion/krugman-the-amnesia-candidate.html?_r=1

Eurozone unemployment up ten months in a row

Unemployment across the 17-nation eurozone hit a record high of 10.8 per cent in February, up from 10.7 per cent the previous month, according to official figures. The data released on Monday represent the highest level since the introduction of the single currency in 1999. Official eurozone unemployment figures Spain 23.6 per cent Greece 21.0 per cent France 10.0 per cent Italy 9.3 per cent Germany 5.7 per cent The Eurostat data agency estimated that more than 17.1 million men and women were out of work in February after the ranks of the unemployed rose by 1.48 million compared with February 2011. The eurozone's unemployment rate has risen for 10 consecutive months, as nations across the region enforce austerity measures to fend off the two-year-old debt crisis. Full story: http://www.aljazeera.com/news/europe/2012/04/201242132328791769.html