Major industrial countries have shown strikingly different performances in recent years. Between 1982 and 1987 • employment in the United States and Japan increased by 13 and 6 per cent respectively but only by 2 per cent in Western Europe. While unemployment rates in America and Japan are presently almost as low as they were in the late 1970s when the cyclical position was about the same • they are double as high as they were then in Western Europe. Correspondingly, GNP growth in Western Europe was low by past and international standards.