Do You Hire Foreigners?

[japancool]

GDP per capita OECD figures for 2013 -

Sweden $57,110
Denmark $59,890
Norway $98,080
Luxembourg $79,785
Austria $49,580
Finland $48,810
Germany $44,020
Belgium $46,610
Switzerland $83,330
Netherlands $50,090
France $42,380
Ireland $47,480
UK $39,183

Luxembourg and Ireland benefit because many international companies base their European headquarters there, due to their beneficial tax regimes. Norway, of course, has a sovereign wealth fund built on North Sea revenues that it didn't fritter away, but it and the other Scandinavian countries have higher income taxes, so a higher GDP per capita doesn't necessarily equate to being better off.

The cause? Well, you could say that, as well as being the "poorest" country in northwest Europe, we're also the only one, other than Norway, that isn't part of the Eurozone.

Change that picture to the median or even the average (mean) wage, and things look rather different:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_European_countries_by_median_wage
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_European_countries_by_average_wage

You're right about income equality, or lack thereof.

 

[MASSEY]

That is not the major problem.

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/mar/22/robot-jobs-humans-used-to-do-fight-back

That will be some of the current problem, but it's not the main one at the moment.

The future looks a bit dubious with so many large employers like banks looking to turn everything robotic. But the jobs market will no doubt evolve as it always has.

 

[Siralex]

It's because we have too many people hunting for the same jobs / unvetted immigration.

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It's because we have too many people who don't have any useful skills. And, by the way, "unvetted immigration" is a myth. (Technically EU nationals are not immigrants)