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WHY IS UNEMPLOYMENT FALLING?
Author(s) -
Dicks Geoffrey
Publication year - 1987
Publication title -
economic outlook
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.1
H-Index - 8
eISSN - 1468-0319
pISSN - 0140-489X
DOI - 10.1111/j.1468-0319.1987.tb00426.x
Subject(s) - unemployment , falling (accident) , fell , economics , government (linguistics) , demographic economics , job loss , labour economics , economic growth , psychology , geography , linguistics , philosophy , cartography , psychiatry
Unemployment fell a record 66,000 in May and the total dropped below the symbolic 3 million level for the first time in nearly five years. In June unemployment declined again, for the 12th successive month, and by nearly 300,000 on a year earlier. What is causing this? Is it, as the government claims, the result of improving employment opportunities or, as its critics claim, a combination of statistical trickery and deliberate frightening off the register of those who have given up all hope of getting a job? Our analysis shows that the drop in unemployment last year and in the early months of 1987 owed much to the restart programme and other special measures; more recently there is evidence of strong employment growth.