Considering the OECD area as a whole, there was a four-quarter lag between the time when the OECD unemployment rate began to rise and the time when the relative incidence of long-term unemployment (i.e. the share of all unemployed that have been jobless for a year or longer) began to rise. However, this lag varied considerably from country to country and is probably affected by both national labour market institutions and practices, and the nature of the recessionary shock. Figure 1.8 provides information on how the incidence of long-term unemployment changed between the 4th quarters of 2007 and 2010 for the working-age population and groups defined by gender, age and educational level.