Unemployment In Ireland, Italy, Finland, And Taiwan

Quarterly unemployment data for the second quarter for Ireland and Italy, and monthly data for August for Finland and Taiwan were released today. The attached two charts show the year over year changes in the unemployment rates for the four countries: monthly data for Finland and Taiwan and quarterly data for Ireland and Italy. Ireland has the highest rate of unemployment, 12%, of the four countries and the largest increase, 6.3 percentage points, over the same period of a year ago. The other three countries show year over year increases of 2.6 percentage points or less. The big rise in unemployment in Ireland is another indicator of the severity of the recession hitting that country.

The rise in unemployment in Ireland has undoubtedly played a part in the dramatic change in its net migration. The Irish Central Statistics Office reported today that in the year ending April, 2009, emigrants exceeded immigrants by 7,800, compared with an excess of immigrants of 38,500 in the previous year. This was the first excess of emigrants since 1995. Ireland's long history of net emigration, was reversed beginning in 1996 and continued through 2008 as the economy prospered. Net migration reached a high of 71,800 in 2006 at the height of the economic boom.