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frictional unemployment
Definition of frictional unemployment
: the temporary unemployment of resources (as labor) resulting from job changes, imbalance of factors of production, or short term lack of mobility preventing continuous employment
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Financial Definition of FRICTIONAL UNEMPLOYMENT
frictional unemployment
What It Is
Frictional unemployment refers to the portion of the unemployment rate that results from labor market turnovers. This unemployment is ongoing and includes job transitions and communication lags between employers and potential employees, people entering and exiting the labor force and from the constant creation and destruction of jobs.
How It Works
Frictional unemployment can be illustrated by someone who leaves their current job to look for another. Until they successfully find and begin another job, they are temporarily unemployed.
Another example would be a recent college grad who suddenly becomes available in the job market, but has yet to find his first job.
Why It Matters
Since frictional unemployment results from temporary or incidental factors, it is a portion of the unemployment rate which bears less importance as an indicator of the health of the economy.
In addition, the perpetual and disparate instances of frictional unemployment mean that even when the unemployment rate is very low, it will never be zero. This is called the "natural rate" or unemployment.
Other categories recognized by economists include cyclical unemployment and structural unemployment.
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