ABSTRACT
In recent years, labour markets in the United States and Europe have performed rather differently, as can be seen in Figure 1. Whereas in the US unemployment in 1982 reached a peak of some 12 million, or 10.6 percent of the labour force, and had fallen back to 8 million or 6.8 percent by the end of 1986, unemployment in Europe, as a whole, has continued to rise. Among the major European countries during the 1980’s, falls in unemployment have only been observed in the Netherlands and Belgium, the Nordic countries and for a period, in France and, more recently, in Germany, and during the second quarter of 1986 and into 1987 in the UK. The overall rate has continued to rise to 11.5 percent in the EEC and 10.5 percent in Europe as a whole. Employment growth has been similarly disperse. While employment has grown very strongly in the US since 1982, growth in Europe has been much slower. France and Germany had similar levels of employment in 1986 to those they had in 1980. In 1986, the UK was still some 2 percent below the 1980 level. By contrast, employment in the US in 1986 was 10 percent above the 1980 level.
