Whereas in Europe the creation of jobs in the United States has been hailed as an “employment miracle”, in the USA itself there is concern mainly about the negative implications of the considerable increase in employment. A trend towards deindustrialisation, poor productivity and growing...

In Western Europe in the last two decades the unemployment rate has increased during cyclical downturns only to persist at or around the higher level in the following phase of economic recovery. One of the most notable exceptions to this pattern of unemployment persistence, often termed...