As good as it gets? The UK labour market in recession and recovery

Labour markets, both in the UK and internationally, have surprised both in recession and recovery. Contrary to the prior literature summarised in OECD (1994) that argued that unemployment was caused by the levels of unemployment benefits, job protection and other labour market factors including high levels of union density, unemployment grew most in countries a) with large financial sectors (the UK and the USA); b) that had house price bubbles (e.g. Ireland, Latvia, Spain, the UK and the USA); c) that had low levels of job protection and unions (the UK and the USA).