Methods and apparatus for efficient paging in a communications system using unlicensed spectrum are described. A base station, which uses unlicensed spectrum, receives a paging request message from a network node and performs paging operations attempting to page the UE. The paging attempt may fail due to the base station being unable to transmit a paging signal to the UE because the unlicensed spectrum is currently unavailable or because the UE did not respond to a transmitted page. The base station generates and transmits a paging failure response message including a failure cause code indicating the reason that the paging attempt failed. The network node receives the paging failure response message, recovers the failure cause code, and implements a paging escalation strategy as a function of the recovered failure cause code.