The high level of structural unemployment in the euro zone explains the resynchronisation of the US and euro-zone cycles

Growth began to recover and unemployment to fall in early 2010 in the United States and in late 2013 in the euro zone. There wa s therefore a lag of almost four years between the start dates of the US and euro-zone cycles. And yet, today, the euro-zone economy is slowing before its US counterpart, although the US economy will soon slow too: the US and euro-zone cycles have more or less resynchronised . How is this possible when the start dates of their cycles were so far apart? The explanation can be found in the structural unemployment rate, which is much higher in the euro zone (8%) than in the United States ( lower than 4%).