Keith Marsden: “The U.S. employment rate, measured by the percentage of people of working age (16-65 years) in jobs, has remained high by international standards. The latest OECD figures show a rate of 71.7 percent in 2006. This was more than five percentage points above the average for the euro area. “The U.S. unemployment rate averaged 4.7 percent from 2001-2007. This compares with a 5.2 percent average rate during President Clinton’s term of office, and is well below the euro zone average of 8.3 percent since 2000. “Debt interest payments. The IMF reports that the interest cost of servicing general government debt in the U.S. has averaged 2.0 percent of GDP annually from 2001-2008, compared with 2.7 percent in the euro zone. It averaged 3.2 percent annually when President Clinton was in office.”
