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This chartbook focuses on the labor market situation in selected countries in the 1994-2004 period.
Each chart in sections 1 through 4 includes countries in North America (the United States, Canada, and
Mexico) and selected Asian-Pacific (hereafter referred to as Asian) and European countries. Weighted
aggregates for 15 European Union countries (EU-15) are shown on most charts. These represent European
Union member countries prior to the expansion of the European Union to 25 countries on May 1, 2004. The
EU-15 countries are Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg,
the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, and the United Kingdom. Due to the lack of suitable data, some
of the countries do not appear on all charts. It should be noted that the selected countries are not
representative of all of Europe and Asia; rather, they tend to be the more industrialized economies in
these regions. In a final section, several indicators are presented for five large emerging economies:
Brazil, China, India, Indonesia, and the Russian Federation. The appendix describes the definitions,
sources, and methods used to compile the data in the chartbook. For some series, the appendix provides
cautions about the exact comparability of the measures.
Section 1, on Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per capita, shows charts that portray overall measures of
comparative living standards. Section 2 highlights the state of the labor market by comparing major labor
force, employment, and unemployment indicators. Charts in section 3 examine several features of the competitive
position of the U.S. in foreign trade of goods by comparing hourly compensation costs in manufacturing and
trends in manufacturing labor productivity and unit labor costs. Section 4 includes charts that compare
public expenditures on labor market programs, regulation measures on labor and product markets, taxes on labor,
and foreign trade in goods as a percent of GDP. Section 5 presents seven charts for the large emerging economies.
The charts are color coded as follows: North American countries are blue, Asian countries are red, and European
countries are yellow. A different color scheme is used, however, when there is more than one chart-bar per country,
and additional colors are used for the emerging economies charts in section 5.
The chartbook was a cooperative effort of three agencies in the Department of Labor: the Bureau of International
Labor Affairs (ILAB), the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Policy (OASP), and the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS).
Since 1960, BLS has adjusted selected labor market data of foreign countries to improve their comparability with U.S. data.
The chartbook is representative of the main output of BLS’s program of international labor comparisons. In order to
increase country and indicator coverage, the BLS data are supplemented by data from the Organization for Economic Cooperation
and Development (OECD) and other international organizations.
A team led by Marie-Claire Guillard of the BLS Division of Foreign Labor Statistics (DFLS) in cooperation with Gregory Schoepfle, Kenneth Swinnerton, and Rebecca Dillender of the ILAB Division of Foreign Economic Research and Lisa Stuart of OASP prepared the chartbook. The following persons comprised the BLS team: Susan Fleck, Erin Lett, Wolodar Lysko, Joyanna Moy, and Chris Sparks. Constance Sorrentino, Chief of DFLS, and Ronald Bird and Stephanie Swirsky of OASP provided overall guidance.
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