December 3, 2004
WINTER FOR GERMANY:
Jobless rate climbs in Germany (The Associated Press, Bloomberg News, December 3, 2004)
Germany's unemployment rate rose in November to a six-year high, the government said Thursday, as Bayer and other companies announced job cuts.The seasonally adjusted jobless rate rose to 10.8 percent from 10.7 percent in October and the number of jobseekers climbed by 7,000 to 4.46 million, the Federal Labor Agency said in Nuremberg.
"Gross domestic product growth of 0.1 percent in the third quarter is still not enough to provide sufficient positive impulses for the labor market," said Frank-Jürgen Weise, head of the labor agency.
The unemployment rate is now higher than when Chancellor Gerhard Schröder was first elected, in September 1998. Companies are cutting jobs and shifting production to lower-wage countries like Poland and the Czech Republic.
Posted by Orrin Judd at December 3, 2004 10:27 AM
The Economist is reporting that Angela Merkel, the head of the CDU, is proposing a series of significant economic reforms but is receiving criticism from her party and the CSU, who refer to her as Angela Thatcher, and not meaning it as a compliment.
Posted by: Bart at December 3, 2004 3:40 PM