Unemployment Figures from Around the World

I found this interesting and thought provoking (for various reasons)
from email I recieved.

I did a quick survey of unemployment rates around the world. The rate of unemployment is the percentage of people who want to work and are able to work but cannot find a job. It's usually a good measure of how well to capacity an economy is running. It's often referred to as a lagging indicator - because companies are often reluctant to hire even when the economy turns around. They hedge their bets. Here's what I found:

• UK: 8.3%
• US: 8.1%
• Ireland: 14.7 %
• Canada: 7.2%
• New Zealand: 6.7%
• Australia: 4.9 %
• South Africa : 23.9%

And because so many people ask about working there and I get tired of telling them that there is little hope, Spain: 23.6% 

If this makes you feel bad, perhaps you will feel better knowing that things could be worse. The unemployment rate in Zimbabwe is estimated to be 95%. Some countries, on the other hand, are looking quite healthy. Qatar is at 0.5%, Thailand, 1.2%, Kuwait 1.5%, Switzerland 3.5% and China 4.1%