Imagine a world in which unemployed can go to the “Jobmart”, pull a job from one of the shelves, check out and simply start working the next day. What a joy!

Now picture this: world peace, each and every one of us is fulfilled, satisfied, find the perfect spouse, and live in prosperity with no worries or pain, no troubles nor diseases until their peaceful death at 120 years old.

This is exactly the imagination’s failure. Should all this come true – we wouldn’t need imagination at all, won’t we?

On the other hand, imagination generates metaphors. “Jobmart”, for example, is a wonderful metaphor, that helps us understand why Prof. Peter Diamond was awarded the Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences in 2010.

Here’s the main idea: assuming no money actually grows on the trees, you are not related to the queen of England and you never were lucky enough to win the lottery – you most likely had at least once to look for a job. Diamond defined the labor market search as a category in finances called “searching market”. Firms do not really shop for employees on the shelves of supermarkets, not do employees shop for positions this way. It takes a long complicated expensive procedure in which one has to find the other.

Diamond was born to a Jewish family whose ancestors came from Eastern Europe to the U.S.A. in the late 19^th century. He developed models depicting the processes of labor searching, and decisions making of both employers and employees. The models attempt to answer questions such as why unemployment reaches a certain level at a specific period. How does government policy, such as the distribution of benefits or social insurance affect levels of unemployment?

So, it you are looking for a job, take a look at Diamond’s models – they’re diamonds forever.