Cyclical, Non‐Cyclical and Hidden Unemployment in Canada Available to Purchase

This article describes, in non‐technical language, the results of recent research concerning the behaviour of some major components of unemployment. While the analysis is based on Canadian data it is felt that since high unemployment rates, controversy about their causes, and uncertainty about appropriate policy responses, are all common to a number of countries, our results may be of interest to a wider audience. Indeed, in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, France, and Germany unemployment rates in the 1970s appear to have been higher, on average, than those that prevailed in the preceding decade. There seems little doubt that sluggish growth in recent years has contributed significantly to high unemployment rates, but a variety of other causal factors have also been suggested.