Unemployment

Abstract

It is widely accepted that in monopoly capitalism there is a tendency toward growing accumulation and production without an adequate and proportional rise in employment. According to one law, a minimum increase of 4 percent in the GNP is necessary to prevent an increase in unemployment, and a much larger one to reduce it. This has been confirmed by the small recovery of 1976-77. This state of affairs, however, was already evident during the 1960s when, despite the boom, there were already clear indications to discourage the optimism of that period and to infer that, in terms of employment, capital was heading for disaster.