With the increasing number of news reports about unemployed people seeking to emigrate, it’s useful to look at unemployment rates in a number of destination countries. These are, of course, only guidelines – no doubt there are national differences in the methods of compiling these statistics that make it difficult to make accurate comparisons.
Ireland’s unemployment rate is 11.8%. Here are the rates in some of the countries most commonly considered by those seeking to emigrate:
- UK: 7.1% (March 2009 – Office for National Statistics)
- US: 9.4% (May 2009 – Bureau of Labour Statistics)
- Canada: 8.4% (May 2009 – Statistics Canada)
- Australia 5.7% (May 2009 – Australian Bureau of Statistics)
- New Zealand – 5% (April 2009 – Statistics New Zealand)