In the 1990s and 2000s, unemployment was seen, both by academic labour market economists and policymakers, as a short-run disequilibrium phenomenon. Policy was aimed at increasing the 'flexibility' of the labour market, at removing obstacles to the workings of the market, which would ostensibly...

The rapid closure of pits during the 1980s in the UK is an example of an economic shock which is not only specific to a particular industry but also to local economic areas. In 1983, only 29 of the 459 local authority areas in the UK was coal mining more than 10% of total employment. Over the...