An NYT piece on Germany’s growth for 2010 told readers that the country’s unemployment rate is 7.2 percent. This is the rate using the German government’s measure. However, this measure includes part-time workers who want full-time employment as being unemployed.

The better measure is the OECD harmonized unemployment rate, which uses largely the same methodology as the Labor Department in the United States. This measure shows Germany’s unemployment rate at 6.7 percent.

The article also cites a German economist’s projection that the German economy grew 0.6 percent in the 4th quarter compared to 0.7 percent in the third quarter. It would have been helpful to annualize these numbers, since GDP is always reported in the United States as an annualized growth rate. The annualized growth rate based on these numbers would be approximately 2.8 percent in the 3rd quarter and 2.4 percent in the 4th quarter.

[Thanks to Seth for the correction — DB]