4.5.3—Types of unemployment

Frictional unemployment is the short gap while people move between jobs; structural unemployment occurs when skills or locations do not match vacancies; cyclical unemployment follows weak aggregate demand. Seasonal unemployment follows predictable changes in demand or production.

The same worker may pass through more than one category. Classify the mechanism first: search time, mismatch, the business cycle or a recurring seasonal pattern.

A ski instructor without winter work is seasonal; a former printer whose skills no longer match local vacancies is structural; a graduate searching between offers is frictional; a factory closure during recession can create cyclical unemployment.

“Voluntary” and “involuntary” are not interchangeable with every named type, and one policy cannot remove all unemployment.