This book presents what was learned from the author's vast experience of observing, diagnosing and analysing unemployment statistics.An economic policy always relies on diagnosis about spontaneous trends and about the likely impact of alternative government decisions. During the last two decades the author devoted most of his time to observation and diagnosis and to the analysis of macroeconomic factors of unemployment. This book presents what was learned from this experience.An economic policy always relies on diagnosis about spontaneous trends and about the likely impact of alternative government decisions. During the last two decades the author devoted most of his time to observation and diagnosis and to the analysis of macroeconomic factors of unemployment. This book presents what was learned from this experience.An economic policy always relies on diagnosis about spontaneous trends and about the likely impact of alternative government decisions. Unemployment was the main problem faced by policy makers during the past two decades. During that period the author devoted most of his time either to observation and diagnosis or to the analysis of macroeconomic factors of unemployment. This book presents what was learned from this experience, particularly on diagnosing unemployment trends and assessing the effects of real wages on investment and employment.Preface; Prologue to the Federico Caff? Lectures 1990; Introduction; 1. Expert diagnosis; 2. Analysis and forecasting: their respective roles in mastering our destinies; 3. From statistics to projections; 4. Diagnosing unemployment trends; 5. The Beveridge curve; 6. Real wages and unemployment - a decade of analysis; 7. Profitability and factor demand under uncertainty.