A Chartbook of International Labor Comparisons
(March 2009)

Entire Document (PDF 2.5 MB)

This chartbook is presented on the BLS website in Adobe PDF format. The charts and the text for each section are available below in individual PDF files and the chartbook is also available in a single PDF (2.5 MB).

• Foreword
• Preface

Section 1. Gross Domestic Product Per Capita

• 1.1 - Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per capita, 2007
• 1.2 - Average annual growth rates for real GDP per capita, 1997-2007

Section 2. Labor Market Indicators

• 2.1 - Size of the labor force, 2007
• 2.2 - Average annual growth rates for the labor force, 1997-2007
• 2.3 - Labor force participation rates by sex, 2007
• 2.4 - Labor force participation rates for youths, 2007
• 2.5 - Labor force participation rates for older workers, 2007
• 2.6 - Employment as a percent of the working-age population, 2007
• 2.7 - Average annual growth rates for employment, 1997-2007
• 2.8 - Average annual growth rates for full-time and part-time employment, 1996-2006
• 2.9 - Annual hours worked per employed person, 1997 and 2007
• 2.10 - Unemployment rates, 2007
• 2.11 - Unemployment rates for youths, 2007
• 2.12 - Unemployment rates for youths and adults, 2007
• 2.13 - Persons unemployed one year or longer as a percent of total unemployment, 2007
• 2.14 - Ratios of unemployment rates of persons without high school degrees to those of persons with college or university degrees, 2006
• 2.15 - Educational attainment of the adult population, 2006

Section 3. Competitiveness Indicators for Manufacturing

• 3.1 - Hourly compensation costs, 2006
• 3.2 - Average annual growth rates for hourly compensation costs, 1996-2006
• 3.3 - Employer social insurance expenditures and other labor taxes as a percent of hourly compensation costs, 2006
• 3.4 - Average annual growth rates for manufacturing productivity, 1997-2007
• 3.5 - Average annual growth rates for manufacturing output and hours worked, 1997-2007
• 3.6 - Average annual growth rates for manufacturing unit labor costs in U.S. dollars, 1997-2007
• 3.7 - Manufacturing output as a percent of world manufacturing output, 2007

Section 4. Other Economic Indicators

• 4.1 - Public expenditures on labor market programs as a percent of GDP, 2006
• 4.2 - Measures of regulation on labor and product markets, 2003
• 4.3 - Shares of labor costs taken by tax and social security contributions, 2007
• 4.4 - Dependency ratios, 2006 and projections to 2025
• 4.5 - Trade in goods as a percent of GDP, 2007

Section 5. Indicators for Large Emerging Economies

• 5.1 - World population distribution, 2007
• 5.2 - Age composition of the population, 2006
• 5.3 - Dependency ratios, 2006 and projections to 2025
• 5.4 - GDP per capita, 2007
• 5.5 - GDP per employed person, 1995 and 2005
• 5.6 - Labor force participation rates by age, 2007
• 5.7 - Employment as a percent of the working-age population by sex, 2006
• 5.8 - Trade in goods as a percent of GDP, 2007
• 5.9 - Manufacturing output as a percent of world manufacturing output, 2007

Section 6. Employment Outlook Indicators

• 6.1 - Part-time employment for youths as a percent of total employment for youths, 1996 and 2006
• 6.2 - Employment as a percent of the prime-age population by sex, 2007
• 6.3 - Ratios of psychological distress rates of workers in low skill occupations to those of all employed persons
• 6.4 - Shares of global foreign direct investment expenditures and receipts, 1995, 2000, and 2005

APPENDIX. Definitions,Sources, and Methods

 

Foreword

The U.S. Department of Labor fosters and promotes the welfare of America's job seekers, wage earners, and retirees by improving their working conditions, advancing their opportunities for profitable employment, and protecting their retirement and health-care benefits. We also help employers find workers, strengthen free collective bargaining, and track changes in employment, prices, and other national economic measurements.

The aspirations guiding our mission—to enhance the well-being and productivity of working people—are shared worldwide.

Governments across the globe are grappling with a worldwide recession and its impact on their workers, their families, and their communities. As we confront these challenges, it is useful to track how key labor market and other national economic measurements compare, so as to gauge trends and to provide government officials and citizens worldwide the opportunity to learn from each other.

This Chartbook is a gateway to explore the wealth of data produced by the Bureau of Labor Statistics' (BLS) Division of International Labor Comparisons and the international labor policy and research programs maintained by the Bureau of International Labor Affairs (ILAB). For more information, please visit http://www.bls.gov/ilc/ and http://www.dol.gov/ilab/.

I hope you find this Chartbook useful in your own work, and that you share it with your colleagues.

 

Hilda L. Solis
Secretary of Labor

 

Preface

This chartbook focuses on the labor market situation in selected countries for the most recent year available; some charts also show trends. Charts in sections 1-4 and section 6 include countries in North America (the United States, Canada, and Mexico) and selected Asian-Pacific and European economies. Some countries do not appear on all charts due to the lack of suitable data. It should also be noted that the selected economies are not representative of all of Europe and the Asian-Pacific region; rather, they tend to be the more industrialized economies in these regions. Weighted aggregates for 15 European Union countries (EU-15) also are shown on many of the charts in these sections. These represent European Union member countries prior to the expansion of the European Union to 25 countries on May 1, 2004, and to 27 countries on January 1, 2007. The EU-15 countries are Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, and the United Kingdom. In section 5, several indicators are presented for six large emerging economies: Brazil, China, India, Indonesia, the Russian Federation, and South Africa.

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, portrays overall measures of comparative living standards. Section 2 highlights the state of the labor market by comparing major labor force, employment, and unemployment indicators. Section 3 examines the competitive position of the United States in the global marketplace by comparing hourly compensation costs in manufacturing, trends in manufacturing labor productivity and unit labor costs, and manufacturing output as a percent of world manufacturing output. Section 4 includes charts that compare public expenditures on labor market programs, regulation measures on labor and product markets, taxes on labor, and trade in goods. Section 5 presents charts on various topics for large emerging economies. Section 6 presents a visual abstract of the 2008 Employment Outlook published by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). The Employment Outlook is an annual publication that explores recent labor market developments of interest to the 30 OECD member countries. This final section is the second of a series of one-time supplemental sections that highlight topics of particular interest, but with occasional data availability.

The chartbook was a cooperative effort of three agencies in the Department of Labor: the Bureau of International Labor Affairs (ILAB), http://www.dol.gov/ilab/; the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Policy (OASP), http://www.dol.gov/asp/; and the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), http://www.bls.gov/. 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 the BLS program of international labor comparisons. In order to increase country and indicator coverage, BLS data are supplemented by data from OECD and other international organizations.

A team led by Jennifer Raynor of the BLS Division of International Labor Comparisons (ILC), http://www.bls.gov/ilc/, in cooperation with Kenneth Swinnerton and Sarah Donovan of the ILAB Division of Economic and Labor Research prepared the chartbook. The following persons comprised the BLS team: Rich Esposito, Mubarka Haq, Wolodar Lysko, Andrew Petajan, Jessica Sincavage, Marie-Claire Sodergren, and Chris Sparks. Constance Sorrentino, Division Chief of ILC, and Ronald Bird, David Langdon, and Stephanie Swirsky of OASP provided overall guidance.

Last Modified Date: May 6, 2009