This article compares the employment crises which took place in 1991- 1994 and 2007-2010 and the labour reforms undertaken in 1994 and 2010. The objective is to analyse whether the evolution of employment and unemployment during the current crisis is similar to the previous one, something which may help forecast the future evolution of the two the variables. Moreover, by comparing the changes in labour laws, this article aims to shed some light on the likely influence of reforms on aggregate labour market outcomes and to evaluate whether they might help reduce the high degree of sensitivity of employment with respect to changes in production, a very distinctive feature of the Spanish economy when compared with other EU countries.

Key words: labour reform, employment, unemployment, Spanish labour market.
JEL classification: J01, J08.