Unemployment and job search
Persistent unemployment imposes economic and social hardships on jobseekers and their families, and is also costly for employers and governments.
CEP's seminal contributions to the modelling of search frictions in labour markets, for which Christopher Pissarides was awarded the Nobel Prize, set the scene for much of the macro-labour literature on understanding how different labour market policies can shape the equilibrium level of unemployment and was followed by empirical studies of matching functions.
Richard Layard, Steve Nickell and Richard Jackman's foundational work on the role of labour market institutions in shaping the level of unemployment has also been instrumental in shifting the way the UK's labour markets and subsequently those of most European countries operate. Their work on the effective supply of labour as the main underlying determinant of employment has influenced the adoption of New Deal type policies in the UK and Europe.
More recent work on unemployment has examined the role of local labour markets in shaping job search and why unemployment persists in particular local labour markets in the UK and the US. The CEP has also studied unemployment in the Great Recession and whether modern technology plays a role in jobless recoveries.
Featured Work
Unemployment and job search publications
Jonas Kolsrud and Johannes Spinnewijn
1 March 2024
Jonas Kolsrud and Johannes Spinnewijn
29 February 2024
Ihsaan Bassier, Alan Manning and Barbara Petrongolo
28 September 2023
Robert Blackburn and Maria Ventura
25 September 2023
Maayan Arad and Christopher A. Pissarides
18 September 2023
Maayan Arad, Charlie Beckett, Giulia Gentile and Christopher A. Pissarides
7 September 2023
Jonathan Wadsworth
8 February 2022
Michael Amior and Alan Manning
1 July 2018
Alan Manning and Barbara Petrongolo
1 October 2017
Georg Graetz and Guy Michaels
1 May 2017
Christopher A. Pissarides
1 July 2013
Richard Layard and Stephen J. Nickell; Edited by Werner Eichhorst and Klaus F. Zimmermann
1 May 2011
Richard Layard, Stephen Nickell and Richard Jackman
1 August 2005
Richard Blundell, Monica Costa Dias, Costas Meghir and John Van Reenen
1 June 2004
Dale T. Mortensen and Christopher A. Pissarides
1 July 1994