The table indicates the unemployment rates in the labour work force of 9 countries, namely Ireland, Poland, Italy, Canada, the UK, Germany, the USA, Australia and Japan.
Overall, 5 of the given countries showed a downward trend of unemployment rate while 3 showed an opposite trend. Australia was the country which the unemployment rate remained stable from 5% in 1994 to 5.4% in 2004, showing a 0.4% increase only.
Ireland had the highest unemployment rate in labour force in 1994, at 14.8% which plummeted to 4.4%, being the lowest unemployment rate in 2004 among the given 9 countries. Similarly, Italy, Canada, the United Kingdom and the USA showed a declining trend in the unemployment rate, with the UK dropped relatively more, which had 9.5% in 1994 and dropped by almost half in 2004.
On the other hand, Poland, Germany and Japan showed an increasing trend in the unemployment rate in the labour force. Worth noting is that Poland had the second highest rate in 1994 which rose to the highest among the 9 countries in 2004, at 19%. Whereas Japan which had the lowest rate in 1994 of all the given countries, even though increased to 4.7% in 2004, still remained the lowest among all the given countries.