the offdiagonal cases correspond to countries where the unemployment rate either responded particularly strongly to the output shock countries in boxes above the diagonal or particularly weakly countries in boxes below the diagonal additional aspects of shock heterogeneity are captured by the letters c x l and h which denote respectively unusually large concentrations of the decline in output in the construction and export sectors a relatively long duration of the recession or a sharp fall in housing prices even though the fall in gdp was not especially big in these countries a sharp increase in unemployment occurred especially in spain where the decline in employment was more than double that in gdp cf