Unemployment in the OECD Countries

Unemployment varies a great deal, both across countries and over time (see Table 9.1.) In particular, since the early 1960s, unemployment has risen in every OECD country but whereas some of the increases have been relatively slight, as in the US, in other countries, such as Spain, the rises have been truly staggering. It is our purpose to try and explain both the trends in unemployment in each country, and the dif­ferences in the levels of unemployment across the countries.