The first graph is my replication of Krugman's. The graphic suggests that the idea, popular even amongst "well-informed" circles in the U.S., that job prospects in the U.S. are somehow generally superior to those in the "Old-World," is no longer true (France, of course, plays the stereotype of Old Europe). The graphic might support that hypothesis for the early 1980's through 2000, but things seemed to have changed dramatically over the last 10 years...
It is important to note that Krugman expresses the employment percentages as:
(No. of employed persons ages 25-54) / (Total population ages 25-54)
I thought that it might be worthwhile to also look at the employment percentages for:
(No. of employed persons ages 25-54) / (Total labour force ages 25-54)
The difference is that, in this case, I am normalizing by the total labour force ages 25-54 (instead of the total population figure). Why? I thought there might be some funny things going on in the persons ages 25-54 who are not looking for work (i.e., included in total population count but not in the labour force count). This graph is below...
I don't really have a good interpretation of the differences...but thought I would share the figures anyway.
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