According to the auditor general, as the public sector represents around 30% of the total labour work force, its health and well being is crucial to the effective delivery of public services.

BBC: Sick leave in NI public sector costs economy ?149m

Despite the robust growth of the French economy, few within the government expect the 35-hour week to perform job-creating miracles for the tenth of the labour force still without work.

ECONOMIST: Lionel Jospin, France’s would-be president | The

America has a smaller fraction of prime-age men in work and in the labour force than any other G7 economy.

ECONOMIST: Angst in the United States