Unemployment Rates in the United Kingdom and Germany

Figure 1.0-Unemployment in the UK shows that the rate of unemployment in the United Kingdom was 5.4 percent in 2006. From 2006 to 2008, the rate was relatively steady, only rising to 5.7 in 2008. From 2009 to 2011, the trend rose to a relatively high level of around 7.6 percent, and gradually increased to 8.1 percent in 2011. The unemployment rate has fallen from 6.2 percent in 2014 to 4.6 percent in 2016. The rising rate is due to work changes, which resulted in frictional unemployment. Besides, in 2008, the unemployment was caused by many workers being laid off as a result of the recession. The structural changes that can be related to the changing economy is another cause for unemployment in the United Kingdom.

Figure 1.0 Unemployment in the UK

Source: UK statistic. Statista, 2016

The youth unemployment in the UK has been on the rise since 2000 when the rate was at 20.3 percent to 2011 when it hit 38 percent. Since 2012, the rate has been decreasing gradually until it was recorded to be approximately 27.9 percent in 2015 as shown in Figure 2.0 (Youth Unemployment in the UK). Observing the trend in the unemployment, it can be established that the lack of skills for the right jobs contributes to unemployment. Besides, since most of the time the youth tend to take time before employment especially after graduating, there is a high likelihood of most of them being unemployed.

Figure 2.0 Youth Unemployment in the UK

Source: UK statistics. (2017)

In Germany, the rate of unemployment has been fairly high since 1995 up to 2005. In 1995, the rate of unemployment for Germans was 9.5 percent and later rose to 11.5 percent in 1997 which was also experienced in 2005. Since 2006, the unemployment rate has been dropping from 11 percent in 2006 down to 6.5 percent in 2016 (Figure 3.0-Unemployment Rate in Germany). In January 2017, Germany recorded a lower rate of 3.8 percent. The unemployment in Germany is caused by people training for less demanded skills and thus fail to secure jobs. Also, the people tend to have a lower paying job which forces them to opt out of their workplaces to look for better jobs.

Figure 3.0 Unemployment Rate in Germany

Source: Statistic. Statista, 2017

On comparison of the two countries, one notices that the rate of unemployment was higher in Germany compared to the United Kingdom before 2008. Since then, there has been a greater percentage of reduction in unemployment in Germany than in the UK. The significant change can be attributed to the Kurzarbeit scheme which recommended for work sharing program.

Youth unemployment in Germany was relatively flat from January 2016 until April 2016 at 7.2%. From May 2016, there was a significant drop from 7.1% down to 6.5 in January 2017 (Figure 4.0-Youth Unemployment Rate in Germany). Relatively, there was a drop of about 0.7% within a period of a year indicating that Germany had put in place strategies like Kurzarbeit scheme that were stabilizing the employment market of the state.

Figure 4.0 Youth Unemployment Rate in Germany

Source: Tradingeconomics.com. (2017)

The unemployed youths are at a high risk of engaging in drug and substance abuse. From the social perspective, the youths are likely to end up isolating themselves from the rest of the population. The isolation and the possible drug abuse problem eventually lead to economic problems like crime in which the government and people have to invest money to combat such consequences.

References

Unemployment rate 2000-2016 | UK statistic. Statista. Retrieved 12 March 2017, from https://www.statista.com/statistics/279898/unemployment-rate-in-the-united-kingdom-uk/

Youth unemployment rate (16-17) 2000-2015 | UK statistics. (2017). Statista. Retrieved 12 March 2017, from https://www.statista.com/statistics/280263/youth-unemployment-rate-16-17-in-the-united-kingdom-uk-year-on-year/

Unemployment rate in Germany 2016 | Statistic. Statista. Retrieved 12 March 2017, from https://www.statista.com/statistics/227005/unemployment-rate-in-germany/

Germany Youth Unemployment Rate | 1991-2017 | Data | Chart | Calendar. (2017). Tradingeconomics.com. Retrieved 12 March 2017, from http://www.tradingeconomics.com/germany/youth-unemployment-rate