FWIW, there was a story in the German press over the weekend in which the different way they measure unemployment played a role. Here's a short summary from a translation service:
- Struck wants parallel statistic of unemployed
SPD Bundestag faction leader Peter Struck came out in favor of the publication of a new statistic parallel to the official jobless numbers. In this new statistic, those who cannot, should not, or do not want to be placed are to be left out, Struck said over Radio Hesse. He called attention to Department of Labor findings that show up to 1.2 million people in the official statistic who are not looking for a job and do not want to be placed.
[FWIW, that's 1.2 million out of almost exactly 4 million, seasonally unadjusted. For some reason the raw data, unadjusted, is the headline news in Germany, rather than the rate, and crossing that threshhold would be a big news event in Germany -- and bad news for Schroeder in the upcoming campaign, which is the impetus for tinkering. Still, if they use the same methodology to compute rates and the season adjustment doesn't sway things a lot, this suggests that the German unemployment rate would be 30% lower using American criteria.]