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Economic Growth

Education and Jobs Growth

The kinds of jobs that require less education have been shrinking in Europe, but increasing in the U.S., according to the Labor Department. Jobs requiring more education, however, have been growing at roughly comparable rates in Europe and the U.S. From 1980 to 1996, employment in sectors where at least 30 percent of U.S. full-time workers have college degrees rose at a 2.6 percent rate in the U.S. and at an average 2.2 percent pace in France, West Germany, Britain and Italy. But in sectors with less than 30 percent college graduates, employment shrank in all four European countries, while climbing at a nearly 1 percent annual rate in the U.S. Since the majority of workers in both the U.S. and Europe are in lower-education sectors, Europe's lagging job growth has clearly been concentrated in such industries. Analysts cite several labor market factors that have probably contributed to this situation -- Europe's high minimum wages, labor regulations which impose high costs to get rid of workers, and regulations which inhibit expansion in retail and other service industries. Source: Gene Koretz, "Where Europe Lags in Jobs," Business Week, September 14, 1998.

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