I've just completed a consulting project in South Africa looking at various economic inputs required to reduce their 25-35% level of unemployment. It is estimated that for every 1% of new jobs created, the South African economy must grow by 2.3%.
With a government target of 5 million additional jobs, over the current growth-rate, to be created over the next 10 years, the South African economy must grow at an average of 7.2% per annum for a decade.
I was wondering if anyone has done a similar calculation on what economic growth rate would be required to reduce US unemployment by half from the current 9-10%?
UPDATE: Fennec raises the point that a time-frame would be useful. Americans would probably want to halve unemployment in one year. So let's set this as, what economic growth rate would be required to halve US unemployment by December 2011, or December 2012?