This paper is concerned with the theoretical behaviour of the laminar Ekman layer and the family of related rotating problems that includes both the Bödewadt and the von Kármán boundary-layer flows. Results from inviscid and viscous analyses are presented. In both cases, within specific regions of the parameter space, it is shown that the flows are absolutely unstable in the radial direction, i.e. disturbances grow in time at every radial location within these regions. Outside these regions, the flows are convectively unstable or stable. The absolute or convective nature of the flows is determined by examining the branch-point singularities of the dispersion relation. The onset of absolute instability is consistent with available experimental observations of the onset of laminar–turbulent transition in these flows.