We show how changes in the educational composition of the labour force affect both the level and the behaviour over time of aggregate unemployment series. We also demonstrate that if it had not been for such changes, the U.S. unemployment series would look European since the within-group...

The current sluggish performance of the US economy follows one of the more remarkable booms in modern history. The late 1990s was a period of simultaneous output and productivity growth, low unemployment and stable inflation, culminating in an unemployment rate of only 3.9% in the fourth quarter...

This paper looks at changes in the distribution of unemployment across education groups in Canada, France, Germany, Italy, the UK and the US. The rate of unemployment among the less educated is higher than among those with more education in all the countries, with the exception of Italy....

This paper introduces the age structure of the population into the analysis of medium term unemployment swings. We incorporate age-related features into the Shapiro-Stiglitz shirking model and find that the observed age pattern of unemployment can be explained in terms of the model. Moreover, we...