Unemployment in Sweden

McKinsey says Sweden's "real unemployment rate" is about 15 percent. As Tyler Cowen points out, you might expect a lot of libertarians and economists to be happy about this number. After all, how could a welfare state maintain such high employment and economic growth over the years?

But this brings up an interesting problem with comparing employment rates between countries. Definitions of unemployment can vary. McKinsey included more than those who want to work and are actively seeking a job (the BLS definition used in the US employment numbers).

McKinsey reached its conclusions by including those who want to work and those who could do so, meaning people on government programmes as well as those on prolonged sick leave.

If you included those people you would likely obtain a much higher number for unemployment in any country.