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This paper studies the responses of unemployment in Germany, the USA and the UK to the Great Recession of 2008–9 using Beveridge curve analysis, and in the entire OECD using other techniques. It is shown that the UK suffered from recession but no structural problems; the USA suffered from structural unemployment during the recovery; Germany exhibited a much better performance both during and after the recession. The rise in OECD unemployment is broken down into parts due to aggregate activity, the construction sector and a residual attributed to policies and institutions, which is used to reach conclusions about policy.

This paper derives optimal employment contracts when workers are risk‐averse and there are employment and unemployment risks. Without income insurance, consumption rises during employment and falls during unemployment. Optimal employment contracts offer severance compensation and sometimes give notice before dismissal. Severance compensation smooths consumption during employment, and dismissal delays insure partially against the unemployment risk because of moral hazard. During the delay, consumption falls to give incentives to the worker to search for another job. No dismissal delays are optimal if exogenous unemployment compensation is sufficiently generous.

This paper considers the implications of four kinds of labour market policies for the 1980s rise in European unemployment: unemployment compensation, active labour market policies, employment protection legislation and taxation. It finds evidence that all have played a role in the determination of unemployment and discusses the mechanisms involved, the extent of the influence of each and the lessons learned from this experience. One of the main findings is that there is a trade‐off between wage inequality and unemployment. Policy has played a role in determining how a country responded to the negative macroeconomic shocks of the 1980s but policy alone cannot explain the full rise in European unemployment and North American wage inequality.