The percentage of unemployment for 1989 is given for each country. These comparisons suggest that Japan's high employment rate has other explanations. Indeed, there is evidence to support this inference. Japan can therefore be considered a unique case, rather than proof that capital investment, productivity, and high rate of employment go together. Japan also provides an exception to the argument that machinery displaces labor while increasing productivity, since Japan's way of organizing production puts the machinery at the disposal of family labor.
Families have no incentive to lay off workers.
Rather, they utilize machinery to increase production and hence profit. The suffering caused by unemployment is incalculable. Freud once remarked that work is the principal factor binding most people to reality. By far the greatest risk of poverty is suffered by the long-term unemployed where a combination of demoralization, benefits erosion and social exclusion form the basic framework of their lives. The 1980s saw a recomposition of unemployment with an ever increasing proportion falling into the long-term category.