Types of unemployment

1. • Frictional unemployment
• Structural unemployment
• Cyclical unemployment
• Search unemployment
• Regional unemployment
• Casual unemployment
• Technological unemployment
• Seasonal unemployment
By
Churchill Afodume

2. Frictional Unemployment Frictional Unemployment is when a person does not have a job due the
process of moving from one job to another. Furthermore, it could also be
the time period which the worker is searching for job.
 Many people suffer from frictional unemployment such as
 University graduates who are searching for a job after graduating from
university(depending on their grades)
 Actors/ theatre actors who are searching for role in a movie/theatre play
 Football players who have been released by their clubs and have been put in free agent
transfer waiting for team to sign them. (Northampton town released Akinfenwa)
Overall, Frictional unemployment happens when it takes the labour market
time to match a worker up with a new job.

3. Structural Unemployment
 Structural unemployment is when a person is unemployed because
there is a lack of demand for worker as the firms are looking for specific
worker who has the specific skills they are looking for.
 Structural unemployment happens for several reasons such as:
 Changes in technology – Some workers are fired because they do not
know how to use some new technology or they can’t adapt to it.
 Changes in tastes: If a product keep decreasing in demand then
eventually the company which produces the product will go bankrupt
and their workers will be unemployed.
 Overall, Structural unemployment is an unemployment caused by lack
of skills.

4. Cyclical Unemployment
 Cyclical Unemployment is when there is a greater availability of workers than
there is of job vacancies.
 Cyclical happens when there is lower demand for products due to the
lack of consumer confidence, disinterest or reduction in the consumer
spending due to less disposable income. This would make the firms
cutting back their workforce in production and maybe using capital
good instead. Therefore, there wouldn’t be enough jobs for the
unemployed.
 Cyclical unemployment is called cyclical because it is linked to the business
cycle of the economy.
Demand has fallen for
the product and the
price level has
decreased. This has
caused the firms to cut
back on their
workforce so less
people are hired for
jobs

5. Search Unemployment
 Search unemployment is when a person is unemployed because they
are still searching for a job which they desire rather than accepting the
first job which was offered to them when they became unemployed.
 Search unemployment is sometimes also known as Frictional
Unemployment because they are both very similar. Search
unemployment is the time period which are still searching for job
which is the same as frictional unemployment.
 Search unemployment similarly affects the same people as Frictional
unemployment which can be students. Some disabled people also
suffer from search unemployment because sometimes the job they are
offered is not suitable for them so they turn down the offer.

6. Regional Unemployment
 Regional Unemployment is simply structural unemployment occurring
in a specific region of a country. For example, changes in the south
wales coal mines have left many people unemployed in that region
because most of the people living in that region worked in the coal
miners.
Information last
updated in
August 2013.

7. Casual Unemployment
 Casual Unemployment is simply when people are able to work but they
choose not to work because they have sufficient cash so there is no
need for them to work. However, this causes some problems because
they add to the unemployment figures which makes it higher in the
economy
 Some people who are contractors or self employed can choose when
not to work or choose not to work at the end of their contract because
they feel they have made sufficient cash.
 For example, if someone won 10 million pounds from the national
lottery then they could choose not to work even though they are able to
work then this would make them casually unemployed.
 In Australia, the unemployment rate is increasing very rapidly because
many people are becoming casually unemployed.

8. Technological Unemployment
 Technological Unemployment is when there is a lack of jobs or when
people lose their jobs due technological changes. People are replaced
by capital goods and machinery because sometimes it makes the job
easier and also quicker.
 Furthermore, it also makes the cost of labour and productivity less
expensive which would make the firms earn more profit. This could
potentially cause deflation because the prices would have fallen due to
the increase of supply.
Due to the change
in technology, the
productivity rate
has increased but
the employment
rate is decreasing.

9. Seasonal Unemployment
 Seasonal unemployment is a working agreement where the worker is
employed for a certain part of the year ,however after that time of the
year has passed then the worker is left unemployed.
 Examples of people who suffer from seasonal unemployment are
people who work with weather related jobs such as summer tourism
jobs, beach lifeguards or snow related jobs in a certain region.
 Furthermore, people who are also construction workers who only work
when house building jobs are available.
The diagram shows
the seasonal
unemployment
rate in the UK and
in the EU

10. Through my research and personal knowledge, I
personally predict that in the future the rate of
unemployment will increase in the UK because many
people are becoming lazy and deciding to live on job
seeker’s allowance and benefits instead of finding jobs
and becoming more productive. Furthermore,
technology is changing everyday and soon there will be
machineries which could effectively replace many
human jobs.