International comparisons of employment, 2007–2013

Employment in the United States has increased since the 2007–2009 recession ended in June 2009, but the total employment level in March 2013 was still 2.1 percent below the level when the recession began in December 2007. March 2013 employment levels in Italy and Japan also were lower than they had been in December 2007. Australia, Germany, Canada, and Sweden all experienced net employment gains from December 2007 to March 2013.

 

Employment in Australia rose steadily from December 2007 to March 2013, with a net gain of 8.1 percent over that period. In Germany, employment was fairly flat from mid-2008 to mid-2010 and generally has grown since mid-2010. Over the December 2007–March 2013 period, Germany had a net employment gain of 5.8 percent.

In Canada, employment declined more than 2 percent from October 2008 to July 2009 and then grew fairly steadily through March 2013. Over the December 2007–March 2013 period, Canada had a net employment gain of 4.3 percent. Employment in Sweden also generally has grown since July 2009, and the net increase in employment over the December 2007–March 2013 period was 2.6 percent.

These data are from the International Labor Comparisons program. To learn more, see "International Unemployment rates and Employment Indexes, Seasonally Adjusted, 2009–2013" (HTML) (PDF) (XLS).