Unemployment

This chapter begins by describing the problems of defining and measuring unemployment, and then uses this as a basis for the examination of recent unemployment history. The characteristics of the unemployed are then discussed, including the regional distribution and the extent of unemployment among the young, old and ethnic minorities. The costs of unemployment are discussed and this is followed by an analysis of types of unemployment and recent approaches to unemployment such as the efficiency wages argument, and the suggestion that unemployment can result from the division of the labour market into insiders and outsiders.