If you have been looking for a job during a past couple of months and are still unemployed, perhaps you should consider moving to one of the countries with the lowest unemployment rates in the world in 2017.
Life seems to be going smoothly when you are in school and when you put all of your energy and thought into getting that piece of paper that makes you qualified to enter into the labor force, or so most of us think. You might have financial troubles which, more often than not, pressure you to adapt to the capitalist mode of existence by developing your own survival techniques. However, in general, you are too occupied balancing between your studies and social life at the campus to be thinking about the two digit number on your credit card. The gratification you reach upon finally obtaining your degree does not last long as what follows is the pressure to find a job. Apart from being time and energy consuming, it can also be frustrating and disappointing. The effort you put sometimes seems to be in vain, especially if you are looking for a job in a country which has a rather high unemployment rate. We wrote about these countries in our article 11 Countries With the Highest Unemployment Rates in the World. This time we focus on countries with the lowest unemployment rates in the world, and we specifically look into 2017 statistics. Also, you can check out the 11 Countries with the Highest Minimum Wage in the World in 2017, to see if there is some overlapping with today’s list.
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There are many things that have to fall into place so you can land your perfect job opportunity. It is not just a matter of your education level and experience. The law of supply and demand of job market also plays a significant role, perhaps the most significant. And let us admit it to ourselves, sometimes luck overshadows all of these, and it all becomes a matter of being at the right place at the right time. The Undercover Recruiter has recently published statistical data concerning the highest demand jobs and the fastest growing industries in the USA in 2017. Registered nurse, office manager, operations manager, personal care aide, and accountant are the top five jobs in demand. The fastest growing industry, without much surprise, is IT, showing 18 percent of growth. It is followed by healthcare, design, business and financial sector, and sales. Given the influential role the USA plays on the neoliberal capitalist scene and the fact that it stands as an epitome of a developed economy, I believe these data resemble the economies of the countries with the lowest unemployment rates in 2017.
The report published by the International Labor Organization at the beginning of last year predicted a rise in unemployment in 2017 of 3.4 million people. According to the report, the trend will continue in 2018, with an increase of 2.7 million unemployed people. ILO provides annual reports on the global unemployment rate across regions. The global unemployment rate 2015 shows that South Asia as having the lowest unemployment rate, 3.95 %. The Middle East and North Africa had the highest unemployment rate that same year, 11.71 %. While still leading as the region with the lowest unemployment, South Asia experienced a small rise in unemployment in 2016, 3.96 %. The Middle East and North Africa experienced an improvement as its unemployment rate dropped to 11.65 %. However, it remained the region with the highest unemployment in the context of the global unemployment rate 2016.
According to Trading Economics, the country with the highest unemployment rate is Djibouti, where the last recorded unemployment rate is 54.0 %. Interestingly enough, the unemployment rate in India, compared to that of Djibouti is not high – 4.9; however, the UN predicts an increase of the unemployment rate between 2017 and 2018, which suggests stagnation in job creation. While having a relatively low unemployment rate compared to some other African countries (11.3 %), the Zimbabwe unemployment rate shows a tendency to grow. Quite contrary to these is an example of France, which seems to be determined in improving its statistics on unemployment. The unemployment rate in France is 9.5 % which indicates a slow, but steady decrease. As indicated by the Eurostat, the unemployment rate in Europe in August 2017 was 9.1 %, which is lower than the year before when the rate was 9.9 %.
When creating the list of 15 countries with the lowest unemployment rates in the world in 2017, I referred to the data provided by countryeconomy.com, concerning July and August 2017 and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, concerning the first quarter of 2017. The ranking is based on the average value of the unemployment rates provided by both sources. The differences in the unemployment rates data provided by these two sources are minor. I should note that there is no worldwide statistics which would allow a comparison of unemployment rates of all countries. ILO does publish annual reports on unemployment rates. However, it analyzes regional unemployment. OECD also publishes annual reports, however, these reports contain data on unemployment of OECD member countries.
So, without further ado, let’s see our results.
