Employment is a state of mind, but it is also a key indicator of a country’s economic performance. Employment Rates measure the number of people who are employed in relation to the country’s population. Countries can increase or decrease their employment rates depending on several factors.In the past two years, many countries saw improvements in their employment rates due to government intervention and workers’ willingness to accept changes in working habits. For example, South Africa saw its highest employment rate ever at 83 percent in May 2018. However, this jump in employment rate was accompanied by a reduction in wages and an increase in part-time work for some sectors of the economy.Despite the overall reduction in employment, several countries saw an increase in their labor force participation rate over the past year— such as Australia, Canada and New Zealand among others. These increases may be partially attributed to increased governmental support for workers who want to reduce or quit their full-time jobs.The changing employment rates hide the number of people who were left without jobs due to the economic downturn . According to Euro state, 27 European Union countries had a lower unemployment rate compared with two years prior to 2018 spring. This drop in unemployment likely resulted from increased job security measures and decreased wages coupled with decreased labor force participation rates due to aging populations.
