Types Of Unemployment

What are the different types of unemployment? To be able to work is an important part of our lives. When we work, we are able to earn and give ourselves a good life. However, due to the recent downturn of the economy, unemployment has been a huge problem all over the world. Do you know that there are actually at least three types of unemployment? The three types of unemployment are frictional, structural, and cyclical.

Frictional types of unemployment are the gap when an employee decides to move from one work to another. There are some people that are lucky enough to be able to get a job even before he leaves his current one. But there are just some people that experience this gap. Sometimes, these types of employment can take a while. Most of the people who suffer this type of unemployment are those who get fired or laid out. Due to this, they are not able to prepare and look for a new workplace. Whether it is a week or a month or a year, this gap is considered frictional unemployment. Also, frictional unemployment can occur when students who just graduated start working for the first time. As long as there is a gap, it is unemployment.

The structural types of unemployment, on the other hand, happen when there are more workers or employees than the actual job available. Another scenario that depicts the structural types of unemployment is when workers or employees have skills that aren’t needed in the current available jobs as well as employees lacking skills in jobs that are in demand. In short, the structural unemployment type happens when the skills possessed by employees are not matched with the needs of the employers – hence, the loss of jobs. For years now, the structural types of unemployment has been a problem mainly because these jobs are usually for the long term and retaining employees can be really tricky and costly.

The third types of unemployment are cyclical. These are the unemployment occurrences that are caused by movements in the economy that affect business cycles. A very common example of cyclical unemployment is unemployment caused by the recession. You see, it is normal that there are depressions and recessions that occur during the low time of the economy. The people who lose their jobs during these times are the ones who suffer from cyclical unemployment. Of course, when the economy is at its low, companies cut production costs and this usually leads to employee layoffs. If this happens in a long period of time, more workers will be available than the actual jobs itself.

Aside from these three main types of unemployment, we also have seasonal unemployment. As you may know, there are jobs that are only available in certain times of the month. The employees that get affected when these jobs are not available are those who suffer from seasonal unemployment. Common examples of these types of employment are swimming pool lifeguards. You see, when it isn’t summer, not much people go to swimming pools. Hence, the need for lifeguards isn’t much. During the summer season, however, more people would like to go for a dip. Hence, more lifeguards are needed to work.