EN
One of the most important social problems of a nowadays economic development at the world level is the high rate of unemployment, even in the economically most developed countries, with its negative implications on lasting poverty. It becomes evident that the correlation between economic dynamism and the creation of the new labour opportunities is not as evident as in the past. The aim of this paper is to draw on the controversial results of the efforts to reduce the unemployment rate and to solve the social problems connected with it, especially in USA and EU, and the different results achieved. In the first part, we pay attention to the changing concept of the full employment, in the second one, we bring some data concerning the rates of unemployment and the evolution of the social situation in the countries under consideration, and in the third, we discuss the different aspects of a welfare state, especially of the flex-security type.