By trying to explain the economical growth in Europe during this year, I will take several options into consideration. They are the following - working hours in each of the European country with the unemployment rate and the effects, that were created by the worlds’ financial crisis.
The whole paper is divided into twelve major parts, which are the twelve countries, that are older members of the European Union. The countries are Belgium, Luxemburg, Italy, Netherlands, France, Germany, Ireland, Denmark, United Kingdom, Greece, Spain, Portugal. I have chosen to describe the economy in these countries due to the lack of space for all European countries and because these 12 countries makes the biggest influence on other countries by exports, imports, emigration and immigration.
Ireland. During the last 20 years, Ireland has made a huge jump in its economics. Due to the fact, that Ireland has been suffering from the economical crisis inside the country in 1987, government has decided to create the program for recovery, that was called PNR (Program for National Recovery). This program helped to lower the deficit in the budget, to stable the taxes, to create more competitive background for the firms. By the help of this program, unemployment has decreased from 16,9% in 1987 to 7,8% in 1998. The one more step, that made Ireland one of strongest economy having country in Europe was the law accepted in 1995, called "Tax Break". This law has canceled all the taxes for the company, who wants to settle down in Ireland with a condition, that the money for taxes will be reinvested in Ireland. Such huge companies from the USA like Dell, Intel, Microsoft, etc. have settled down in Ireland, creating about 900,000 of new work spaces in 11 years. This action, has dramatically reduced the unemployment from 1996. As you can see in the table, the unemployment rate in Ireland in 1996 was two percent higher than the average in EU, and in the next years it started to fall.
According to the unemployment rate, Ireland has suffered from the world economical crisis during the 2008 and the beginning of the 2009 years. The percentage of unemployed people is 9,2% at the moment. But despite this fact, the GDP remains to grow by 5% and the export by 7,1% per year and the inflation is low – only 1,1% in December 2008.
The working hours in Ireland during the last three years remained almost the same. It was 44 hours per week for clerical and operatives and for skilled operatives. 45 hours at average per week was worked by foremen, 46 hours per week by unskilled operatives. The interesting fact is, that males have worked for an average of 40 hours per week, and females have worked for only 36 hours per week.
In conclusion, Ireland suffers from the crisis, but not so much, because its exports are increasing, GDP remains to grow. The only minus is the unemployment rate. ...
Working hours and growth in Europe [speros.lt].doc