This text provides an up-to-date, comprehensive guide to the ecomonics of unemployment. Peter Sinclair studies three complementary aspects of unemployment: the statisitical and human facts; the explanatory theories; and the policies. The book examines the economic theories which have emerged from the United States, the United Kingdom and Europe, and includes a detailed survey of the characteristics of the unemployed. Sinclair explores the links between unemployment and inflation, trade union behaviour, short-term shocks, deterministic theories of "equilibrium unemployent", non-market-clearing unemployment theories, wage-price stickiness and the significance of redistributive fiscal policies.