The mainstream economic paradigm treats the emergence of unemployment as an anomaly of capitalism, the result of cyclical disequilibrium and exogenous shocks, as is done in economic crises, as well as human will. However, unemployment is inherent to the capitalist mode of production. It is therefore a condition of existence and an absolute law of capitalism. It is possible to talk about the high influence of unemployment rates in determining the working standards of workers (average working hours, wage level, level of unionization, right to collective bargaining, etc.). At the same time, capital must always have a reserve of laborers (unemployed masses) to ensure the continuity of its production activity. In addition, unemployment rates are one of the macroeconomic indicators that exhibit differences in periods of prosperity or crisis in the economic system and have a high level of importance for every economy. Moreover, the fact that unemployment has social, political and even psychological aspects (costs) in addition to its economic aspect has made the phenomenon in question the focus of research in different disciplines.
The aim of the study is to examine whether there is any causal relationship between labor productivity, average working hours and unemployment rates in selected OECD countries for the post-1980 period. The main claim of the study is that if technological advances are used in the interests of workers, they will help reduce average working hours, which in turn will contribute to lower unemployment rates. In this framework, the findings indicate that there is a bidirectional causality relationship between the unemployment rate and working hours, while a unidirectional causality relationship emerges from labor productivity to the unemployment rate.
