From the talented folks at Jib-Jab.

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These are also tough times for many Americans struggling in our sluggish economy. As we count the higher blessings of faith and family, we know that millions of Americans don’t have a job. Many more are struggling to pay the bills or stay in their homes. From students to seniors, the future seems uncertain.

That is why this season of giving should also be a time to renew a sense of common purpose and shared citizenship. Now, more than ever, we must rededicate ourselves to the notion that we share a common destiny as Americans – that I am my brother’s keeper, I am my sister’s keeper. Now, we must all do our part to serve one another; to seek new ideas and new innovation; and to start a new chapter for our great country.

That is the spirit that will guide my Administration in the New Year.

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Here is data on unemployment levels for ten economies. Unless noted all data reflects end of November or mid-December reports.

The United States
The number of people filing for unemployment benefits hit a 26-year high last week, as the deepening recession forced more employers to cut jobs. All told over 10 million Americans are unemployed with millions more underemployed.

First-time claims for unemployment rose 5.4%, to 586,000 for the week ending December 20, 2008. The last time claims were that high was on November 27, 1982. The four-week moving average, which is a less volatile indicator, rose to 558,000 from 544,250, also a 26-year high.

United Kingdom
Figures from the Office for National Statistics show that in the three months since October, the number of people out of work in the UK rose by 137,000 to 1.86 million. This represents the highest level in over a decade and takes the unemployment rate up some twenty basis points from 5.8% to 6.0%. Meanwhile, the number of people claiming the Jobseeker’s Allowance (unemployment benefits) grew by 75,700 in November from the previous month to 1.07 million, which was much higher than analysts anticipated. Many reports have speculated that by New Year’s, two million people will be out of work and the Trade Union Congress (TUC) is calling for the Jobseeker’s Allowance to be raised to £75 a week, from the current level of £60.50. Meanwhile, UBS is forecasting that 3 million will be out of work in 2010 and believes the UK is in for a period of ‘prolonged pain’.

Canada
Following little change in October, employment fell by 71,000 in November, with the decrease split between full- and part-time work. The unemployment rate rose 0.1 percentage points to 6.3%. In the first 11 months of 2008, employment increased by 0.8% (+133,000), a slower pace of growth compared with the 2.2% (+361,000) observed during the same period in 2007.

In November, the employment declines were concentrated in Ontario (-66,000), where there was a large drop in full-time work. Nova Scotia (-4,400) also experienced a decline in November, while employment remained relatively stable in the other provinces.

The manufacturing sector was hard hit in November, with a net employment drop of 38,000. This brings manufacturing declines to 388,000 since the peak in 2002. In Ontario, the employment declines in this sector totalled 42,000 in November.

Following gains in October associated with hiring for the federal election, employment in public administration fell by 27,000 in November.

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A report from Kenya’s NTV. Why is there piracy off the coast of Somalia? I’d start by asking the fishing fleets of Japan, Taiwan, China, France among others that question. It should be noted that the issue of illegal fishing and over fishing of stocks off Somalia is largely the cause of the rise of this new wave of piracy. The coasts off Somali off some of the world’s richest tuna stocks but Somali fishermen can’t compete with modern trawlers that are large fish factories.

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In Washington DC, environmental groups and organizations promoting alternative energy have presented recommendations to transform the United States into an energy efficient country. Producer Zulima Palacio attended the meeting and has the story. Mil Arcega narrates.

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The Catholic Church in Poland is reporting a decline in the number of people turning to priesthood, as Nadim Baba reports now from Krakow. In fact, Polish Catholic priests used to go on missions all over the world but with their numbers waning fewer priests are going abroad.

Mass attendence in Poland is also on the decline. Only Ireland has had a traditionally higher number of weekly attendence.

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It’s hard to write of a Somali crisis deeping given that the country has been without a functioning central government going on 18 years and is now effectively partioned in three parts with two functioning breakaway regions in the northern third and a rather vacuous and lawless rump in the southern two-thirds of the country but Somali’s woes are on the rise. Today comes word that Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed, the president of Somalia’s beleaguered transitional government that effectively only controls Mogadishu and environs, is about to resign. The full story from the New York Times:

The president of Somalia’s beleaguered transitional government, a former warlord who has been steadily marginalized over the past few months and widely blamed for his country’s deepening crisis, is expected to resign over the weekend, several Somali officials said Wednesday.

President Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed faces a litany of challenges: a powerful Islamist insurgency; a rancorous Parliament that is threatening to impeach him; a united front of Western diplomats who say he has gone from the being the solution for Somalia to being the problem; and neighboring countries, such as Kenya, that have gotten so fed up with him for blocking peace efforts that they are preparing sanctions against Mr. Yusuf and his family.

“Yusuf was an obstacle to peace,” said Ibrahim Isaaq Yarow, the transitional government’s deputy information minister. “The parliamentarians were congratulating one another today when they heard the news that the president is resigning.”

The question is, will his resignation, if it indeed takes place, make a difference?

Somalia’s government controls no more than a few city blocks in a country nearly the size of Texas. Islamist insurgents with varying agendas control much of the rest. Famine is steadily creeping toward millions of people, the victims of drought, displacement and nearly 18 years of anarchy.

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