ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the unemployment and inflation since 1950 in three countries: Canada, Australia, and the United States. It begins unemployment and inflation in Canada; it is the country among the three that provides the clearest evidence of postwar fluctuations in the form of shifting trade-off curves and cyclical loops. The chapter also examines provincial patterns of unemployment and inflation, to discover what similarities and differences there are in comparison with patterns at the national level. In 1983 a substantial reduction in inflation was achieved with a comparatively slight increase in unemployment, and from 1984 to 1988 there was marked improvement. A trade-off exists only in periods when the inflation rate is falling and unemployment increasing or vice versa. The Newfoundland economy is a small one, and conditions, especially unemployment, can reflect the situation prevailing in one major industry, such as fishing.
