Guichard and Rusticelli (2011) conclude that the NAIRU has increased in a number of countries since the start of the crisis, particularly those that have been most affected by financial and construction sector crises.
The collapse in the construction sector in Ireland, for example, has probably contributed to an increase in the Irish NAIRU.10 In the US, various authors have highlighted the role of factors such as the housing market crisis and the extension of unemployment benefits as having possibly increased structural unemployment.11 More generally, the increase in long-term unemployment in a number of countries indicates that the NAIRU has most likely increased in these countries (see Figure 4).12 An increase of the NAIRU may be problematic for two reasons.