摘要：The contrast between the United States and the
EU countries in terms of unemployment is well
known. It is summarised in Figure 1. In the United
States there is no trend (if any, it is negative) over the
period 1959–2002, although the unemployment rate
remained abnormally high during the 1980s and early
1990s. In Europe, we start in the early 1960s with low
unemployment rates (around 2 to 3 percent in France,
Germany and the UK, that is, approximately half the
US unemployment rate at the same period). In the
1970s, unemployment starts increasing in all coun-
tries. Substantial intra-EU differences are, however,
observed after 1985.The unemployment rate remains
high in a majority of countries (more than 8 percent
in France and Germany, for instance), while it is on a
decreasing path in some others (mainly the United
Kingdom and the Netherlands)
