THE RHETORIC OF GLOBALIZATION29of job expansion. While Western Europe reported no net new jobs from 1973 to 1994, the US generated 38 million net new jobs�(Thurow 1996: 37). These statements show how important it is always to consider rates of both employment and unemployment, and not to construe a simple relation between these two major statistical indicators for labor market development. For instance, high unemployment in the EU is not the only reason for the difference of employment rates between the EU and the US: f half of the people currently unemployed were in employment (bringing the EU unemployment rate to the level of the US), the employment rate would be 64 per cent, still well below the levels of the US and Japan�(Employment Rates Report 1998: 4). Similarly to the unemployment rate, the employment rate also differs widely with regard to individual member states, regions, gender, age and economic sectors. With 48.6 per cent, Spain again brings up the rear, whereas Denmark, with 77.5 per cent, is the leader. In six member states (Netherlands, Ireland, Spain, Portugal, Belgium and UK) the employment rates increased more than the average over the period 1985�7; in Italy, Germany and France they fell slightly, in Finland and Sweden sharply. As a consequence, the overall EU employment rate remained virtually unchanged over this period. The increases were mainly in female employment, while male employment was stagnating or even falling. Nevertheless, in the prime age (25�4) and older people (55�4) groups standard employment rates for women are still around 22 percentage points lower than for men. In other words, there is still a significant employment potential for women in the EU. This also becomes evident when comparing the employment rates for women with those in the US:EU prime age older women 61.9% 25.9% US 73.6% 49.5%In general, employment rates for women, young people (15�4) and older people are much lower in the EU than in the US. Only the rate of prime age males (84 per cent) is slightly below the one of the respective group in the US (88 per cent). A particularly significant trend in the EU labor market is the decrease in employment rates for young people and the over-55s. In the period 1985�997, the rate for the first group declined by nearly 2 per cent per year both for women and men �reaching a level as low as 36 per cent in 1997 (15 percentage points below that of the US). In this group the differences between the member states are also enormous, ranging from 24.4 per cent in France to 69.4 per cent in Denmark. With 46.5 per cent in 1997, the overall EU employment rate for older people is 8 percentage points below the year 1985. The decline in employment of the 55�4 age group, however, seems to be a trend common to all capitalist economies. In
