The unemployment rate in the EU27 has grown since the first quarter of 2008 as a result of the economic crisis. However, the increase has been smaller than in the US, where the rate has overtaken the EU27 despite having been much lower at the start of the crisis. On a more detailed level, similar patterns in the evolution of unemployment by gender and educational level during the crisis can be observed in the EU27 and the US. Long term unemployment is higher in the EU27, but rising fast in the US.

In the first quarter of 2010, the seasonally adjusted unemployment rate in the EU27 was 9.6%, just below the rate in the US which stood at 9.7%. US unemployment before the crisis was at its lowest level in the second quarter of 2007 at 4.5% and peaked in the fourth quarter of 2009 at 10.0%. In the EU27, unemployment started to rise in the first quarter of 2008, when it stood at 6.7%. Since then, the unemployment rate has increased to reach 9.6% in the first quarter of 2010. While the rate continued to rise in the EU27 in the first quarter of 2010, it decreased in the US.

These data come from a publication issued by Eurostat, the statistical office of the European Union, on the impact of the economic crisis on EU27 and US unemployment.

In both EU27 and US, men more affected by unemployment than women,…

In the EU27, the unemployment rate was 9.8% for men in the first quarter of 2010 compared with 9.3% for women. For the first time since the beginning of the series in 2000, the unemployment rate for men overtook the rate for women in May 2009. In the US, the unemployment rate was 10.7% for men in the first quarter of 2010 compared with 8.5% for women. As in the EU27, the unemployment rate for men in the US rose more quickly during the crisis than for women. Between the third quarter of 2007 and the fourth quarter of 2009, the unemployment rate for men rose by 2.9 percentage points (pp) in the EU27 and by 6.5 pp in the US. The increases for women in the same period, 1.5 pp in the EU27 and 4.1 pp in the US, were smaller.

…high education reduces risks of unemployment…

In the EU27 and in the US, unemployment rates rose most strongly in absolute terms for those with the lowest level of education. In the EU27, the rate increased by 4.3 percentage points between the fourth quarters of 2007 and 2009 for those with less than upper secondary education, while it rose by 1.4 pp for those with tertiary level education. In the US over the same period the rate rose by 7.7 pp for those with less than upper secondary education, and by 3.9 pp for those with tertiary level education.

…and long term unemployment rises

In both the EU27 and the US, long term unemployment rose more than short term unemployment. However, long term unemployment was relatively high in the EU27 before the crisis, while it was low in the US.

In the EU27, the rate for short term unemployment (less than one month) increased by 0.1 percentage points between the fourth quarters of 2007 and 2009, while the long term unemployment rate (6 months and longer) grew by 1.3 pp. In the US, the rate for short term unemployment rose by 0.2 pp between the fourth quarters of 2007 and 2009, while the long term unemployment rate gained 2.9 pp.