ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the debate over the causes and cures of unemployment, especially long-term unemployment. The growing influence of the US on British labour market policies is highlighted. In most European countries unemployment reached levels that were unprecedented since the 1930s. The response by British governments since 1979 to labour market impediments or 'rigidities' had two main thrusts: widespread labour market deregulation and the use of 'active' labour market policies targeted on the supply side of the labour market. As with unemployment in general, Conservative governments have explained the emergence of long-term unemployment as a problem of labour market supply. In the post-war period of full employment, the role of social security with respect to unemployment was to provide an income as of right to the unemployed, on the basis of minimal conditions and policing. Special training and placement policies are relevant only to those workers who have genuine employment handicaps.
