In the 1980s and early 1990s, many member countries of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) experienced extended periods of high and persistent unemployment, often coupled by low or declining rates of labor force participation and increasing numbers of recipients of government benefits (essentially unemployment, disability, and social assistance). In response, a number of countries over the past two decades have introduced policy reforms aimed at activating those recipients apparently able to work: requiring them to actively seek employment or engage in other specified workor job training-related activities. In the 1990s, the United States took the lead in activating those on social assistance (cash welfare) with its welfare-to-work programs. In recent years, other OECD countries made similar reforms to their social assistance programs, but they have also made more fundamental reforms to their unemployment and disability programs. To explore these developments, the University of Maryland Center for International Policy Exchanges (CIPE) and the OECD held an international conference in Paris, France in November 2011 on “Labour Activation in a Time of High Unemployment.” The conference consisted of five sessions: the political economy of labor activation reform; activation of unemployment insurance (UI) benefit recipients; outsourcing of labor activation services; activation of social assistance benefit recipients; and activation of disability benefit recipients. Each session included presentations of policy papers written by European researchers, further elaborations by European government officials, and discussion papers from prominent U.S. researchers that synthesized the policy lessons for the United States. In total, approximately 90 people attended from 19 countries: Australia, Austria, Belgium, the Czech Republic, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, the Slovak Republic, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, the United Kingdom, and the United States. All of the conference papers and presentations can be found at http://umdcipe.org/conferences/LaborActivationParis/conference_papers.html. This report summarizes some of the major points made in the presentations and follow-up discussions.