Unemployment is a major source of unhappiness, mental ill-health, and lost income. Yet after a century of economic research on the topic, the determinants of the rate of unemployment are still imperfectly understood, with today’s jobless levels in the industrialized world at 10%, and some European nations at over 20%.2 The historical focus of the research literature has been on which labor market characteristics – trade unionism, unemployment benefits, job protection, etc. are particularly influential. Recent research by Blanch flower and Oswald (2013) proposes a different way to view this subject. The results are relevant to a wide range of policy-makers, economists, and researchers, and should be deeply worrying for them.