The Netherlands and the United Kingdom : A European Unemployment Miracle?

Unemployment rates in both the UK and the Netherlands have declined substantially since the early 1980s. This has been a decline in equilibrium unemployment, the result of combinations of supply-oriented policies. The combinations are partly overlapping and partly differing between the two countries. The main difference is in wage negotiations: where the Dutch unions were already cooperative, British unions were made to cooperate. The main overlap is in the popularity of part-time work and the re-enforcement of financial incentives for work for unemployed workers collecting benefits