Unemployment

The US economy has posted its lowest unemployment rate in 18 years after American employers added 223,000 jobs in May and were forced to raise wages, a performance that reinforced […]

Economic growth in the 19 countries sharing the euro currency slowed as expected at the start of 2018, EU statistics agency Eurostat said in its preliminary flash estimate. Eurostat estimated […]

The severity of the global financial crisis, and the weakness of the subsequent recovery, triggered much soul-searching among the economics profession. The global economy may finally be escaping from the long shadow of the crisis, but macroeconomics has continued to undergo a major reassessment in light of its apparent failure to predict and explain the crisis.

The number of Americans filing for unemployment aid dropped less than expected in the week ended June 2. The Labour Department reported on Thursday that initial jobless claims fell 10K to 245K last week, following the preceding week’s upwardly revised figure of 255K. Meanwhile, market analysts anticipated a bigger decrease to 241K during the reported week. Nevertheless, claims remained below the 300K level for the 118th consecutive week, the longest streak since 1973. The four-week moving average of claims, considered a better measure of the existing labour market trends, rose 2.25K to 242K during the reported week.

Swiss unemployment rose in January to 3.7%, compared with 3.5% in December. This was stated this morning by the State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO), according to which in late January the amount of unemployed people registered at the regional offices of placement was 164’466 , 5’094 more than in the previous month and 822 more than in January 2016 .

Among young people (15-24 years) the number of unemployed increased by 566 units (+ 2.9%) to reach a total of 19’782, which still corresponds to 1,398 persons less (-6, 6%) compared to 12 months ago. People who are looking for employment were 226’861, 3’448 more compared with December and 4’110 more with January 2016).

Benoit Hamon secured the French Socialist Party’s presidential nomination on Sunday, beating rival Manuel Valls. Initial results gave Hamon 58 percent of the vote and Valls only 42.

Hamon was the more left-wing choice of the two politicians. He supports a universal basic income and wants to reduce the traditional work week to 35 hours. He has also spoken in support of legalizing cannabis and increased investment in renewable energy. Valls, on the other hand, has called himself a more "Clintonite" leftist with a strong belief in pragmatism and individual responsibility.

The annual Swiss unemployment rate rose to 3.3% in 2016, a 0.1 point increase on the previous year, according to figures released by the State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO) on Tuesday. This may appear insignificant compared to the average European unemployment rate of 9.8% but it hides the very real problem of those forced to make up for the financial loss faced by their employers due to the strong franc.

The point of view of A.M. Spence, Nobel Prize in Economics Sciences, about the new global economic scenario after Trump election