united states, considerable disparities remain when we look at youth, female and older worker employment rates. [ for instance, in 2007 the female employment rate was 57. 9 % in the euro area compared with 66. 1 % in the united states, the older workers employment rate was 43. 6 % compared with 61. 8 % in the united states, and the youth employment rate was 38 % as compared with 54. 2 % in the united states ]. these features of the euro area, which incidentally – are broadly shared by the spanish labour market, appear to be consistent with an “ insider - outsider ” characterisation of the european labour market, where structural impediments, triggered by the legal and regulatory environment, high taxes on labour and rigidities associated with wage regulations may prevent those groups “ at the margin ” from actively participating in the labour market. the figures i have just mentioned suggest that, overall, structural reforms in the labour market still need to be high on the agenda. this appears even more urgent if we consider that in the past europe ’ s growth performance has been, and will be in the future ( all else equal ), increasingly constrained by its low population growth rate and population ageing. indeed, since the mid 1990 ’ s, population in the euro area has been growing at a yearly rate of just 0. 4 % compared to 1. 1 % in the us. however, what is worrisome is that at the same time, the gap in population growth has been even larger with regard to growth in the working age population. the working age population grew on average by 0. 3 % per year in the euro area over the period 1995 - 2007 compared to 1. 2 % in the us ( 1. 1 % in spain ). finally, turning to labour productivity, while during the 1980s and the first half of the 1990s, hourly labour productivity in the euro area grew on average by 2. 3 %, it slowed down to 1. 3 % between 1995 and 2007. similarly, over the same period hourly labour productivity growth in spain decelerated very significantly from 2. 5 % to 0. 5 %. by contrast, us hourly labour productivity growth rose from 1. 4 % to 1. 8 %. the positive labour supply shock, reflected by the increase of employment particularly in the unskilled segment of the labour market experienced in the euro area as well as in spain has, average to 2007q3. source eurostat. data

states. what are the fundamental causes of this lower trend growth in the euro area? the answers can be found by looking at the factors determining the trend in economic growth, namely employment growth, which in turn is related to labour utilisation and, demographic trends ; and productivity growth. 1 as regards labour utilisation, defined as the total number of annual hours worked divided by total population, the euro area outperformed the united states. over the period 1995 - 2007 it increased by 0. 5 % per year on average in the euro area compared with 0. 2 % in the united states. with a rise in labour utilisation of 2. 0 % on average per year over the same period, the spain ’ s performance was even more impressive. source european commission, ameco database and oecd for hours worked for the us. moreover, data for 2007 are partly estimates. the last update of the ameco database was november 2007. in the euro area, the improvement in labour utilisation mainly reflects the significant rise in the euro area overall employment rate from 58 % in 1995 to 65. 6 % in 2007, 2 which has been accompanied by a decline in the aggregate unemployment rate from 10. 4 % in 1995 to 7. 2 % in december 2007. 3 the latest number is the lowest on record since the early 1990s. in fact, since the beginning of emu in 1999 the euro area has witnessed an increase of more than 15 million in the number of people employed, while from 1990 to 1998, this number only increased by around 3 million. spain ’ s performance, with an increase of more than 5 million in the number of people employed over the period 1999 - 2007, has been simply remarkable. these are encouraging developments, which show that past labour market reforms, immigration and wage moderation have helped to overcome some of the constraints on growth stemming from rigid and over - regulated labour markets. however, despite this progress, we are still a long way from having exhausted the potential for further increases in participation rates and employment. the overall employment rate in the euro area remains low by international standards [ 65. 6 % in the euro area compared with 72 % in the united states, 4 and the unemployment rate is still clearly too high [ 7. 2 % compared with 5. 0 % in the united states at the end of 2007 ]. 5 more specifically, while the prime - age male employment rate in the euro area is comparable to that observed in the