Growth and debt

UK

Britain's bounceback from recession is among the weakest in the EU. Only Portugal and Greece have lower growth over the last year. George Osborne blames the euro crisis, but the economy has flatlined since the summer of 2010, and many economists expect Britain to teeter on the brink of recession in the months ahead. UK debt is larger than any in Europe except Greece as a proportion of GDP if household, business and bank debt is added to government borrowing – about 460% of GDP, says consultancy firm McKinsey. If the UK was a young couple after a mortgage, only loan sharks would give a second glance. 1/5

Germany

From the depths of recession in 2010, Germany has motored ahead this year – the economy grew 0.5% in the third quarter. But many expect a tough winter as the euro crisis paralyses business decisions. On debt, anyone who has tried to pay by credit card in a Stuttgart shop or Hamburg restaurant will have realised many Germans still cling to the idea that you should only spend the money you have in your wallet. But this allergy to personal debt does not extend to the government's attitude towards borrowing. Germany's debt as a percentage of GDP is modest when compared to Greece or Italy, it has been increasing sharply in recent years, as a result of bank bailouts, and at around 80% is even higher than the UK's. If it has to rescue many more banks in a eurozone meltdown scenario, the figure is only likely to climb higher. 2/5

Youth unemployment

UK

The figures say 1 million (20%) 16- to 24-year- olds are without work, but the UK does itself few favours by lumping 286,000 students into the figures, while other EU countries massage down the total with mass training schemes of dubious value. Housing benefit and tax credit cuts next year will make things worse. Scotland and the cities of the north are particularly badly affected. The wider unemployment rate has risen to a 15-year high, with more than 2.6 million out of work. For those with a job, earnings increases are being eaten away by inflation: prices are rising three times more quickly than salaries. 1/5

Germany

Young Germans stand a far better chance of getting a job than their British counterparts, largely because Germany believes in doing things properly. There are Ausbildung apprenticeship schemes for everything – from becoming a Saunameister who knows exactly how to ratchet up a sauna to 90C, to building canal tunnels. These are liberally dotted around an economy that revolves around an industrial heartland of mid-sized manufacturing firms that is well-suited for trainees, apprentices and interns to get a toehold on the employment ladder. As a result, youth unemployment is under 10%, one of the best in Europe. 3/5

Workers rights

UK

Workers play little part in running companies. Employers have called for de-regulation, including an end to the minimum wage that protects the lowest paid. That said, unions have joined employers in adopting a universal attitude to austerity, which is to let the young pick up the tab in lower pensions, benefits and pay. National pay agreements are under attack from No 10, which has also put forward limits on maternity leave as a way to ease the burden on employers. Workers endure greater job insecurity than European counterparts, as company bosses insist they need to be free from red tape in order to foster a better enterprise culture. 1/5

Germany

Germany has long earned plaudits for workers' rights, with company boards well-endowed with workers' reps who have a say in the decision-making process, a collaboration known as Mitbestimmung. Germany habitually scores well when ranked by industrial relations, with relatively few days lost to strikes. But there is still no universal minimum wage – something Merkel is trying to introduce to huge resistance from almost all quarters – and so-called Zeitarbeiter (temps) get a particularly shoddy deal. The holy grail for many Germans is to become a Beamter, a more or less unsackable public servant, with a fabulous pension scheme, generous holiday allowance and other enticing benefits. 3/5

Trade and manufacturing

UK

A persistent trade deficit, especially in goods, is often overlooked because Britain makes large gains on its investments abroad to balance the books. With few links to the booming Asian economies, companies have relied on old ties within Europe and selling creative, legal, accounting and banking services, arguably a better long-term bet than metal bashing, which China can always do more cheaply. The high pound through the late 1990s and early part of the last decade forced many manufacturers out of business. But there is strength in the servicing side of manufacturing, which is where the real money is. 2/5

Germany

Germany was the world's top exporter for most of the noughties, only being surpassed in 2009 by China. Exports bring in more than $1 trillion every year. Much of it is down to Germany's much-vaunted Mittelstand, a network of medium-sized, often family-run firms which specialise in manufacturing usually unglamorous things better than anyone else in the world – such as the portable toilets made by Toi Toi & Dixi in Ratingen. There was an enormous hoo-ha this year when Siemens was awarded the £3bn contract to build new trains for the southeast Thameslink line ahead of Derby-based Bombardier, putting nearly 20,000 UK jobs in the sector at risk. But you may be surprised to learn that the service sector comprises more than two-thirds of the German economy, so it's not all Vorsprung durch Technik. 4/5

Executive pay

UK

Corporate excess still goes on, despite widespread calls for restraint in these crisis-hit recession-tinged times. The case this week of John Pluthero, boss of telecoms firm Cable & Wireless, who walked away with £10m despite racking up huge losses, is a shameful example of corporate excess. Lloyds bank, part-nationalised in the crash, is trying to claw back bonuses paid to former boss Eric Daniels. City regulations aim to limit payment for failure. Bankers will take more pay in shares redeemable over three to five years. But there is no pay czar, unlike the US, just a desire from the prime minister for restraint. 1/5

Germany

German board members traditionally earn far less than their counterparts in the UK and the US. But pay has been rising sharply in recent years, and the chief executives of the leading DAX 30 companies all earn seven-figure salaries: Josef Ackermann, the soon-to-depart chief of Deutsche Bank, took home €9m in 2010, making him the world's seventh best paid banker. Yet apart from the odd banker waiving a "fette Boni" (fat bonus) in the depths of the 2008-09 financial crisis, German captains of industry are rather better at restraint than their Anglo-Saxon counterparts. 2/5

Revolt factor

UK

There is an acceptance of austerity in middle income groups, which understand the scale of debts they racked up during the boom. Younger people, knowing they are taking the brunt of cuts and have little to lose, are more vocal and vigorous. Fury at the banking sector – and the failure of the authorities to take meaningful action against it – has spilled over into tents on streets and marches. A resolution of the antagonism between the bailed-out haves and the frozen-out have-nots appears further off than ever. A public sector strike looms. Higher education fee increases next year could trigger further protests. 4/5

Germany

Germans love protesting, especially in recent years– so much so that a brand new word, Wutbürger, literally "angry citizen", came into parlance in 2010 after mass protests against the €1bn project to rebuild Stuttgart train station. Huge anti-nuclear demonstrations were one factor in Merkel's shock decision this year to phase out all nuclear plants in Germany by 2022. So far, the well-to-do Wutbürger have not been out in force to join the Occupy movement, though there are regular Saturday marches in many cities and a camp of around 200 tents has been on the lawn of the European Central Bank in Frankfurt since October. This week activists from Occupy Berlin pitched tents on the sand of a beach bar by the Spree within sight of Merkel's chancellery, having been thwarted in numerous attempts to camp in front of the Reichstag parliament building. 2/5