What has happened to the trade off between
inflation and unemployment in the UK

In the UK the trade off between inflation and unemployment has improved ie the UK has
experienced falling unemployment without raising inflation.

Why?

There are four key issues:-

The labour market
A more flexible labour market has increased the size of the labour supply and a
reduction in trade union power has
reduced the collective bargaining power of
many workers.
Falling long-term unemployment is a sign of a reduction in structural unemployment
rates.
NAIRU (the non accelerating inflation rate of unemployment) has come down.
It is estimated that the NAIRU has fallen from nearly 10% of the labour force in 1992 to
around 5% in the last few years.

The effect of inflation targets

Introducing inflation targets Ifirst introdued in 1992) has reduced inflation
expectations
.

Low inflation in the global economy:

Inflation across the globe has been low

Globalisation

has increased the intensity of competition between nations and reduced the prices of
many imported products.

Technological change and innovation

has raised labour productivity and cut production costs

These fundamental changes in the supply-side of the British and international economy
has been a key factor keeping inflation low even though unemployment has been falling.