Many ( many!) unemployed in Europe are not even looking for a job. What for? The welfare payments are generous enough for them to be comfortable not working. As my husbands European doctor-friends say the one big difference between American and european patients is that American patients want to get healthy as soon as possible so they can go back to work, and European patients want to stay sick as long as possible, and get disability, so they don't need to go to work. ( who wants to work for the money they make anyway?).