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This chartbook focuses on the labor market situation in selected
countries in the 1995-2005 period. Each chart in sections 1 through
4 includes countries in North America (the United States, Canada,
and Mexico) and selected Asian-Pacific 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 the
Asian-Pacific region; 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
United States 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-Pacific 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 Dilender of the ILAB Division of
Economic and Labor Research and Lisa Stuart of OASP prepared
the chartbook. The following persons comprised the BLS team:
Diana Dobrovetsky, Susan Fleck, Mubarka Haq, Erin Lett, Wolodar
Lysko, Gary Martin, Jennifer Raynor, and Chris Sparks. Constance
Sorrentino, Chief of DFLS, and Ronald Bird and Stephanie Swirsky
of OASP provided overall guidance.
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