Unemployment rates in the United States have been slow to fall over the last couple of years despite a modest growth in the number of people employed. The increase in nonfarm payrolls has averaged 191,000 a month over the last year, but the number of unemployed has fallen only by about 81,000 a...

This paper examines the amount of slack in the UK labor market. It examines the downward adjustments made by the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) to both unemployment and underemployment, which in our view are invalid. Without any evidence the MPC in its assessment of the output gap reduces the...