So much for the so called Bush recovery.Tue Sep 26, 2006 11:47am ET
NEW YORK, Sept 26 (Reuters) - Old Europe is going to work, according to a new report indicating the United States is losing its edge in maintaining a more vibrant job market than the continent.
The study from the Center for Economic and Policy Research, in Washington, D.C., focused on workers between the ages of 25 and 54. It found that the employment disparities frequently touted as a sign of U.S. economic dominance have slowly dissipated in recent years.
"Among this core population, over the last five years, Europe has nearly closed the employment gap with respect to the United States," said John Schmitt and Dean Baker, authors of the survey.
In 2000, 81.5 percent of working-age Americans were employed, well above Europe's 76.5. By last year, the U.S. employment rate had fallen to 79.3 percent, while Europe's rose to 78.2 percent.
The U.S. labor market was ebullient in the late 1990s as the Internet boom sparked massive job creation across the economy. But as boom turned to bust, the latest economic recovery has seen much more subdued employment trends.
Many factors are believed to underlie this weakness, including rising productivity and competition from cheap labor abroad.
Whatever the case, the trend is making Europe's employment outlook seem less bleak by comparison, despite lingering perceptions of extensive joblessness on the continent.
"The narrowing of the gap reflects falling employment rates in the United States in the 2000s and rising employment rates in Europe over the same period," the study said.
http://today.reuters.com/news/articleinvesting.aspx?type=economicNews&storyID=2006-09-26T154455Z_01_N26219443_RTRIDST_0_ECONOMY-JOBS-US-EUROPE.XML">LINK
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