About that jobless rate

A quick post before I head off to my own job.  A top story today is the fact that the U.S. jobless rate has climbed to a high 7.6%.  I don’t quarrel with the fact that that’s bad news.  Joblessness is not only a sign of an unhealthy economy, it’s also a recipe for a dissatisfied citizenry.  But just to put it in perspective (and to warn that things will be worse if Obama and Pelosi have their way), that’s still comparable or even low compared to the ordinary (non-recession) jobless rate in some major socialized economies:

Germany:  7.9% – 10.8%, depending who’s giving the numbers

France:  7.8%

Italy:  6.8%

England, whose official unemployment number in the World Fact book is 5.5%, turns out to have been lying all along (how very Soviet of it).  In any event, that’s all history because, with the recession the UK is apparently in jobless freefall.  (I’ll find a link for that later or would appreciate if any of you have a link to the latest jobs news out of the UK, which I saw last week.)