The given table illustrates the rate of unemployment among the workforce across nine distinct countries in 1994 and 2004.
Overall, it is clear that Ireland, Italy, Canada, the UK, and the USA witnessed a decrease in unemployment levels, although to varying degrees. In comparison, Poland, Germany, Australia, and Japan experienced growth. Out of all the nations, Poland became the most unemployed country in the end.
Looking at the details, while Ireland saw the greatest decline, falling by 10.4 percentage points, the unemployment rate in the USA dropped insignificantly, just by 1.8 points in 2004. Meanwhile, Italy and Canada had roughly similar percentages in 1994, with a slight difference of 1.2 points. In 2004, these figures declined to 8.4% and 7.7%, respectively. In the same year, the rate in the UK almost halved, standing at 4.7%.
By contrast, the percentage of unemployed labor in Poland substantially increased from 12.4% to 19%, making it the only country with the rate above 10% in 2004. Furthermore, the figures for Japan, Germany, and Australia accounted for 4.7%, 5.4%, and 9.4%, respectively, in 1994. Ten years later, they recorded a negligible increase, ranging from 0.4 to 2.4 percentage points.