U.S. and European Job Markets Take Different Paths - NYTimes.com: "The United States has almost recovered — at least as measured by the number of unemployed people. But in most of Europe, the number of jobless workers remains substantially higher than it was then.
Over all, the number of unemployed workers in the United States was 3 percent higher in May than it was in September 2008. In Germany, where employment fell less than in the United States during the crisis and then rose faster in the recovery, the number of unemployed workers is down by 25 percent.
But in every other country in the euro zone, unemployment remains higher, often by large amounts, than it was then. The number of people looking for work in Spain is now double the level of September 2008, and the figure is Italy in nearly as bad. In France, unemployment is 40 percent higher than it was then. But Spanish unemployment has declined a little since it peaked in 2011, while in both Italy and France the number of people out of work is at or near a record high."
