unemployment is high. Using monthly panel data for local labour markets in Sweden we find no (or only weak) evidence that high … unemployment makes it easier to fill vacancies. Instead, there are few vacancies when unemployment is high because there is a low … cyclical behaviour of stocks and flows in the labour market also without search frictions. In periods of high unemployment …

In recessions, unemployment increases despite the—perhaps counterintuitive—fact that thenumber of unemployed workers … finding jobs expands. On net, unemployment rises only becauseeven more workers lose their jobs. We propose a theory of … unemployment fluctuations resting onthis countercyclicality of gross flows from unemployment into employment. In recessions …