Labor Market Reforms and Unemployment: Lessons from the Experience of the OECD Countries

30 Pages Posted: 21 Apr 2011

See all articles by Stefano Scarpetta

Stefano Scarpetta

OECD, Directorate for Employment, Labour and Social Affairs; IZA Institute of Labor Economics

Date Written: October 1998

Abstract

The OECD labor market has undergone major changes over the past two decades. The most evident of these changes is the rise in the number of job-seekers. In 1997, there were more than 35 million people unemployed in the OECD area as a whole, some 6 million more than in the mid-1980s and almost 25 million more than in the early 1970s. These figures hide profound differences across countries. In the major European countries, unemployment has increased dramatically over the past two decades and in some of them, including Italy, Spain, and France, increases that were initially cyclical have tended to become structural over time.

Suggested Citation

Scarpetta, Stefano, Labor Market Reforms and Unemployment: Lessons from the Experience of the OECD Countries (October 1998). IDB Working Paper No. 317, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=1817181 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.1817181

Stefano Scarpetta (Contact Author)

OECD, Directorate for Employment, Labour and Social Affairs ( email )

2 rue Andre Pascal
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France
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+33 1 45 24 18 59 (Fax)

IZA Institute of Labor Economics

P.O. Box 7240
Bonn, D-53072
Germany

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