Reducing unemployment: current issues and policy options: a summary of the Bank's 1994 symposium

Reducing unemployment has become a top priority for economic policy in most industrialized nations. While unemployment will ebb somewhat as countries recover from the recent global recession, millions are likely to remain jobless for a variety of structural reasons. Moreover, there is a disturbing trend in many industrialized countries toward long-term unemployment, especially among low-skilled workers. This trend has had less effect on measured unemployment in the United States than in Europe in part because U.S. workers have greater incentives to accept low-wage jobs. Nonetheless, virtually all industrial countries face a jobs problem that impairs living standards and threatens a breakdown in social cohesion.> To enhance understanding of what has caused this problem and to analyze policies to address it, the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City invited central bankers, academics, and economists to a symposium entitled \\"Reducing Unemployment: Current Issues and Policy Options.\\" The symposium was held August 25-27, 1994, at Jackson Hole, Wyoming. Higgins highlights the issues raised at the symposium and summarizes the papers and commentary.