Graph Description

The bar chart illustrates the unemployment rate in Germany compared to the unemployment rate in Ireland. The y-axis shows the rate of unemployment which is defined by the number of unemployed persons as a percentage of the labor force. On the x-axis you can read the year.

In 2000, 8 per cent of the German workforce was unemployed, which was twice as high as Ireland. Unemployment in Germany declined slightly in 2001. However, after this the unemployment rate rose steadily over the next four years, to peak at almost 11 per cent. Between 2006 and 2008 the unemployment rate of Germany dropped rapidly to well under 8 per cent. Before the unemployment rate fell to almost 7 per cent in 2010, there was a slight rise.
The unemployment rate in Ireland consistently remained at around 4.3 per cent from 2000 to 2007. In 2003, the unemployment rate was slightly higher and in 2008, Ireland’s unemployment rate increased by 2.5 per cent. Over the next two years the unemployment rate rocketed to an all time high of 13.7 per cent in 2010. In the first seven years the Irish rate of unemployment is significantly less than the rate of Germany.

In conclusion the statistics show that Ireland once was a country with a very low unemployment rate until 2007 when Ireland entered into the start of what was to become a recession. As a result of the European debt crisis Ireland has suffered further unemployment, as the figures show for