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Peters and Wessel provide profiles of middle aged American men in 2014- as tech workers out of jobs as technology shifts and worker skills fall behind, younger men with masters degrees in fields such as public administration where it is hard to find jobs and workers lack retraining, and other men who lost jobs from globalization or the 2009 economic crisis. About one in 6 working age American men 25-54 are without jobs- about 10.4 million. Of this group two thirds are not looking for work either because they cannot find decent paying jobs or are too discouraged looking for work, and are not counted in the unemployment rate calculated by the Labor Department. About three quarters of the working age men not working have only a high school education compared to 55% with jobs. Wages for highschool dropouts have declined by 25% since the 1970's, and 15% for those without a college degree but having a high school diploma- some of these men are going back to school, others lacking retraining are too discouraged to look for work and depending on a spouse or government benefits. It is these people U.S. Fed chairpersons Ben Bernanke and Janet Yellen have in mind as they shape Fed policies since 2009 to not leave them behind....

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How will countries like India generate jobs when technology enables manufacturing and other activity to do work with fewer and fewer people. Even Hon Hai in China is shifting work to robots. Technological progress is leaving more people unemployed and widening income gaps with the benefits going to a few people, says the Economist in this research based essay. It will require carefully managed governance to invest in infrastructure, raise skills of less skilled workers through education, and wage subsidies for those left behind to ensure our current system works in the future.

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Izzo looks at the diverging picture presented by two Labor Department surveys of unemployment in the U.S. for July 2012- an increase of 163,000 jobs or 195,000 fewer people working. One, the Household Survey is based on survey of individual households counts people and the other the Establishment Survey based on a survey of employers counts jobs. If one person holds two jobs he would be counted twice in the Establishment Survey and once in the Household Survey. If a person is a unincorporated self employed person, a family employee who isn't paid, a farm worker who is employed but not paid he is counted in the Household Survey, but left out in the Establishment Survey. The Labor Department prepares a third measure of the number of people working by adjusting for multple jobholders and for workers not counted in the survey of businesses. By this third measure the U.S. economy added 108,000 jobs in July, which is far less than the 163,000 jobs shown added in the Establishment Survey. Because of the increase in parttime work it is likely that more people are doing multiple jobs which may explain some of this difference. Another reason could be the severe drought in the U.S. that may be reducing the opportunities for work for freelance construction maintenance and day laborers because of restrictions on water use. This shows that it takes several months of data to get some sense of where unemployment is headed, adjusting the numbers for unusual events or weather, and looking behind the numbers to the sectors generating jobs. In the first quarter of 2012 more jobs were generated in the U.S. because of a mild winter, followed by fewer jobs in the second quarter, which required looking at the two quarters together to get a better picture. Adjusting for the long term unemployed who have quit looking is also necessary to get a correct reading of U.S. unemployment levels....

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The OECD sharply cut its eurozone growth forecast to 0.3% in 2012, well below the 2% growth forecast it put out in May 2011. The U.S. growth forecast was cut to 1.8% from the 3.1% predicted earlier. This has serious implications for the eurozone because it means the worsening of budget deficits in the eurozone, leading to more austerity measures and spending cuts, leading to a downward spiral as this affects growth. It also has implications for growth in the U.S., if the super-committee appointed by Congress mandates additional cuts in spending.

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The median net worth of Hispanic and Black families has been severely affected by the recession. Because minorities hold a much larger part of their assets in household equity the foreclosure crisis and the recession have had a devastaing impact on both minority groups. The median net worth of Hispanic families dropped by two thirds and black families by half after the 2008 recession from the 2005 figures, and was around $6000 for 2009 for both groups, according to data from the Pew Research Center. The Pew report shows median net worth of a white family is 20 times that of a black family, and 18 times that of a Hispanic family, with the gap between these minorities and whites twice as large in 2009 compared to the period before the recession in 2005. This was even true for Asian American families, whose median net worth dropped by half from 2005 to 2009, to $78,000. The figure for whites dropped much less from $135,000 to $113,000 during the same period. Another significant finding is that within each group the share of the wealthiest 10% of the people increased between 2005 and 2009, for all households this went up from 49% to 56%, for Hispanics from 56% to 72%, for Blacks from 59% to 67%....

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About 15% of Americans are below the official poverty line of $23,492 for family of four. In 1975 3.7% of Americans were in deep poverty, defined as being 50% below the offical poverty line. In 2012 the Census Bureau Population Survey shows 6.6% of Americans in deep poverty, close to doubling the percentage of people in deep poverty. States in the southern U.S. and midwest have some of the largest increase in deep poverty- Georgia's going from 5.3% in 2000 to 8.8% in 2012. Mississippi and Indiana show similiar increases. And in D.C. with high income levels the deep poverty rate is at 10.4%, affluent communities have high deep poverty rates in their midst, higher than rates in 2009.

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An August survey by Japan's Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, shows 40% of the country's manufacturers saying they would shift production and R&D facilities overseas if the yen remains at 85 to the dollar. It has dropped below that. Nissan will make 71% of its cars overseas in 2010, compared to 66% in 2009. Murata Manufacturing plans to double its foreign output to 30% by March 2013. By buying Dutch printer maker Oce NV in March, Canon Inc., saw its overseas output jump to 48% for the first half of 2010. Toyota is on track to produce 57% of its output overseas in 2010 , compared to 48% in 1995. The popular Prius will now be built at a plant in Bangkok, Thailand. Sony did 20% of its television manufacturing in Japan in 2010, it is aiming to do 50% in 2011. As a result Sony showed a profit for the April-June quarter, after 6 straight years of losses. Its also important to note that when inflation is taken into account the yen has not strengthened the way it appears, which reduces domestic pressures to dampen the yen's rise. Tohru Sasaki, head of foreign-exchange research at J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. in Tokyo, says that in inflation-adjusted terms, the yen is 30% below the rate it reached in April 1995. U.S. consumer prices have risen by 69% since 1990, in Japan the prices rose only 8.5% during the same period. In inflation adjusted terms the April 1995 exchange rate of 80 yen to the dollar would be 56 yen to the dollar today. Japan's exporters can also benefit from the fact that a large part of Japanese trade is denominated in yen- according to Japan's Ministry of Finance 48% of exports to Asia were paid for in yen in 2009. Like China and Germany, Japan remains highly dependent on exports for growth- which provide two thirds of its growth. The yen's strength increases the outflow of production facilities. In July 2010, 10.3 millon workers were employed in manufacturing in Japan, down from 12 million in 2002. Japan's unemployment rate was 5.6% in 2009....

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The underground economy in Cadiz, Spain, and how "chapus" or odd jobs in plumbing or construction help support many people who are unemployed.

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Reflections on Spanish democracy, 34 years after free elections following the Franco regime. No new solutions to problems of high unemployment (reaching 5 million "paradores" or unemployed as a recent front page headline in extra large print in the paper Cinco Dias declared) from the Socialist party and the Partido Popular. And a sense that the country is on autopilot, as decisions are being made by the EU on recapitalizing banks and other economic issues without a significant voice from the Zapatero administration.

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Auto sales in the U.S. reached 1.33 million vehicles in May, a 25% increase over the previous year, with the previous years figures skewed by the tsunami in Japan and shortages for Japanese manufacturers. The seasonally adjusted annual sales rate was 13.8 million vehicles. Employment increased to 644,000 workers in the U.S. auto industry, an increase in the first quarter of 2012 of 6% over the prior year, according to Bureau of Labor Statistics. The basic reason for the increased demand is the aging of cars on the road to about 10.8 years, according to vehicle registration information.

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Job prospects for college graduates in 2011 are showing significant improvement from the previous year. About 19% more graduates will be hired in 2011 compared to 2010, according to the National Association of Colleges and Employers. For college seniors, the survey shows 41% having an offer in 2011 compared to 38% in 2010. But the situation remains difficult for students who graduated in 2009 and 2010. Ernst & Young hired 2800 graduates in 2011- up 22% from 2010. The jobless rate for college graduates in the age group 20-24 is 6.4% in April 2011, coming down from 7.1% in the prior year, according to the Labor Department. In April 2007 the unemployment rate was 3.5%. The situation is uneven, with better prospects for graduates in computer science, engineering, accounting and economics, and most of the jobs in the private sector.

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Recent polls suggest that 4 out of 5 Germans say they are not benefitting from the rebound. Germany has experienced growth with the recovery in export markets in Asia, but the benefits are not being seen at home. Experts at the OECD, and at Duisburg-Essen University's employment institute, say that there has been a downside to the unemployment rate having reached 7.6%; much of this gain has been achieved by expanding the low wage sector. Something like this has not happened in other European countries. The OECD employment outlook report 2010, reveals that 21.5% of Germans were employed in the low-wage sector in 2008, compared to 16% in 1998. The Duisburg-Essen University estimate is that 2.3 million workers were added in this sector from 1998 to 2008, with a total of 6.55 million workers in this sector in 2008. What is happening according to experts is that the Hartz IV labor-market reform is subsidizing the low wages paid by the private sector. And the German government has spent $50 billion in subsidies for people in this sector since 2005. The concern relates to consumer spending which is tight in Germany, even as exports have done well in the recovery from 2008. Average net income has actually fallen since 2004 in Germany, reaching 15,815 euros in 2009 from the figure of 16,471 euros in 2004. Germay has no minimum wage across all sectors. To have a minimum wage comparable to other European countries, hourly pay would have to be between 5.93 euros and 9.18 euros. The DGB group of unions have called for a 8.50 euro minimum wage. ...

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This report in The South China Morning Post in Hong Kong, gives insights into the Chinese position in trade war with the U.S.  China has its own internal groups which support China being able to take a leadership role in world affairs. Xi Jinping made giving China a prominent role in the world a feature of his presidency. China  has this internal audience and its own sense that China's resurgence was won with hard work and cooperation, plus dedication of the Chinese people. In the past Japan and South Korea also used state subsidized industries, and subsidies to gain leadership in key business sectors involving high technology. China would see this state subsidies model as its own model of development. From this standpoint the U.S. demands on subsidies as unfair competition could be seen as changing a key part of its economic model.  Asking China to put everything in writing and show tangible proof of enforcement as the U.S. insisted in talks, was too much for the Chinese side. China said trust us to do this, and lift the tariffs based on our verbal assurances. The U.S. having seen decades of no progress on this point, wanted tangible proof before tariffs were lifted. Added to the demands on subsidies were the demands for no more of what the U.S. calls stealing of U.S. technology through forced transfer of technology by U.S. firms as a condition to operate in Chinese markets. With the U.S. lagging in 5G technology and Huawei ahead the issue resonates on the U.S. side. Add to this Mr. Trump's key voter base includes the former Democratic party supporting workers who have shifted to him because of trade agreements and policies of Clinton and Obama that hurt American workers through seemingly endless closure of manufacturing plants from Chinese competition.   ...

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About one in 5 German workers are in minijobs- about 7.4 million people in May 2013, according to estimates from the WSJ and Germany's Federal Employment Agency. Minijobs are a form of part time work that gets a German worker 450 euros a month free from taxes. Many of these jobs are in retail, healthcare and offer these industries more flexibility. Jobs are done by women, elderly, immigrants without work. The intent was to move these workers into full time work, but this is not happening as most workers in minijobs end up in a deadend status.

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The new budget in France is designed around two goals. The first is to take aggressive action to bring the deficit down to 3% by 2013, not a gradual program but one intended to send a strong message to capital markets that France under a Socialist government is dead serious when it comes to the deficit and debt reduction. Every 0.1% increase in France's borrowing rate would mean $260 million going into interest payments on the debt, according to Pierre Muscovici, the finance minister. France's borrowing rate is close to Germany's 1%, and the French are determined to keep it this way. The other goal was stated by Mr. Muscovici: "I don't want a policy of austerity, hitting salaries, weakening the state and turning it into a pauper." The idea being that hitting the common man would mean decline in consumer spending and lower growth and tax revenues that would create the kind of negative spiral facing Spain of declining growth and rising unemployment, worsening deficits, and higher debt payments. The way Muscovici raised the $39 billion- beyond the $9 billion in higher taxes and savings already implemented for 2012- is through $13 billion in new taxes on corporations, and additional $10 billion from new income taxes, including a higher tax rate of 45% on incomes over $193,000. Additional $13 billion will come from a freeze in public spending, so that some ministries take cuts adjusted for inflation keeping the overall budget the same. Spending cuts could come later to balance the budget as growth picks up to 2% in 2014, is the government reasoning, softening the impact. The new budget is well received by German public opinion as showing the resolve of Germany's key partner in the EU. Part of the reason the French are able to get business and people with higher incomes to contribute is that France is unique in that there is a greater consensus than in other countries on the steps needed and a sense that austerity measures targeting the middle class would be counterproductive. The aggressive action with considerations for equity and fairness also gives France the chance for a faster turnaround and avoid the problems plaguing Spain and Italy, which French public opinion and business appears to have grasped and the government's experienced ministers for the economy have successfully presented. ...

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The U.S. government has spent $18 billion on training and job-search programs, with 47 programs offering training for the year ending Sept. 2009, according to the Government Accountability Office. President Obama proposed spending $8 billion more over 3 years to train 2 million people for new jobs. In addition there are state and local programs which get federal funding. Lawrence Katz, a Harvard labor professor says the money is given out on a haphazard basis and does not have a good track record of matching the training to the job openings. Part of the problem is that the government leaves it to state unemployment offices to evaluate labor markets and help trainees decide on professions to prepare for. A better approach is now being take by getting employers to offer on-the-job training. This approach is being adopted by community colleges and the Labor Department to improve matching of skills training to job openings.