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Tagged: Unemployment

Europe

3:06 am

Wed April 4, 2012

The Secret To Germany's Low Youth Unemployment

By Eric Westervelt

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Photo by Waltraud Grubitzsch / DPA/Landov

Metal-working apprentices train in Leipzig, Germany, in 2010. Germany has Europe's lowest youth unemployment rate, thanks in part to its ancient apprentice system, which trains about 1.5 million people each year.

Photo by Eric Westervelt / NPR

Robin Dittmar, 18, works at the Lufthansa Technik training center in Hamburg. He is about a third of the way through his apprenticeship as an aircraft mechanic and is confident his training will translate into a full-time job.

Photo by Eric Westervelt / NPR

Apprentices are trained at the Lufthansa Technik training center in Hamburg last month. About 60 percent of German high school students opt for vocational training over further academic education.

4:34 - Listen

For as long as he can remember, German teenager Robin Dittmar has been obsessed with airplanes. As a little boy, the sound of a plane overhead would send him into the backyard to peer into the sky. Toys had to have wings. Even today, Dittmar sees his car as a kind of ersatz Boeing.

"I've got the number 747 as the number plate of my car. I'm really in love with this airplane," the 18-year-old says.

Less-than-perfect school grades dashed Dittmar's dream of becoming a commercial pilot. But they were good enough to earn him a coveted apprenticeship slot with Lufthansa Technik, the technical arm of Europe's largest airline, responsible for aircraft maintenance and repair across the globe.

4:34 pm

Wed March 14, 2012

Optimism Rising Along With The Number Of New Jobs

Economists say job growth plays a big role in how consumers are feeling about the U.S. economy.

Robert Galbraith / Reuters/Landov

By Aarti Shahani

4:31 - Listen

Part of a series

As 2011 was winding down, consumer spirits were starting to rise. Now the momentum has carried into the new year, with polls showing consumer sentiment continuing to improve.

Economists say that negative factors, such as falling home values or rising meat prices, are nowhere near as important as the growth in jobs.

"People pay close attention to the jobless rate," said Carroll Doherty, an associate director at the Pew Research Center. "That's a number that matters to people, especially the trajectory."

12:01 am

Tue March 6, 2012

As Elkhart's Electric Dreams Fizzle, RVs Come Back

By NPR People: David Schaper

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Photo by Mira Oberman / AFP/Getty Images

Clinton Lehman, who had been unemployed for nine months before being called back to work, assembles a recreation vehicle at the Jayco factory in Elkhart, Ind., in 2011.

Photo by David Schaper / NPR

Most of these electric cars on the Think factory floor in Elkhart, Ind., are finished and ready to go, waiting to be sold. Some are merely waiting to be delivered to their new owners.

Photo by David Schaper / NPR

Supervisor Rodney Smith is one of only two workers still working at the Think electric car plant in Elkhart.

Photo by Scott Olson / Getty Images

Main Street in Elkhart, Ind. The area was hit hard by the recession — nearly half of all jobs in Elkhart County are in manufacturing.

7:28 - Listen

Elkhart, Ind., is known as the RV capital of the world. The city suffered badly when the recession hit and demand for recreational vehicles all but screeched to a halt. That's when local and state leaders started looking for ways to bolster the area's manufacturing industry.

The unemployment rate in the city along the Michigan border eventually soared to 20 percent — the highest in the nation at the time.

5:30 pm

Thu January 12, 2012

Veteran Unemployment Remains High

By Melanie Plenda

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The last of the U-S troops are now returning from Iraq.

Once home they’re likely to end up joining thousands of other veterans looking for work in a bleak job market.

Despite government incentives to get companies to hire vets, unemployment among vets is still higher than civilians.

The youngest veterans struggle the most.

Twenty-two year old Courtney Selig went into the military to better herself.

"I joined for educational purposes. I wasn't able to afford college on my own and I knew that by joining the service there were things like the GI Bill that could pay for my school."

4:25 pm

Tue December 13, 2011

State Job Numbers Improve

By Jon Greenberg

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The state’s unemployment rate fell one tenth of a percent in November. The current rate of 5.2 percent, seasonally adjusted, came with strong growth in the retail sector.

The jobs that come with selling stuff delivered over 3,000 new jobs in November and strictly speaking, more than just Christmas shopping drove the numbers. Seasonal adjustments are designed to filter out that sort of impact.

Administrative and office support services were another bright spot. On the down side, jobs in tourism and manufacturing took the biggest hits.

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