What Is Structural Unemployment?

Structural unemployment (Structural Unemployment) . Every change in the economic industry requires that the labor supply be able to adapt quickly to changes. However, the structural characteristics of the labor market do not match the social demand for labor. The resulting unemployment is called "structural unemployment".

Structural unemployment

The occurrence of structural unemployment must meet two conditions:

First, the structure of the demand for labor in society has changed due to economic changes (this is a necessary condition);

Second, due to various conditions, the supply structure of labor cannot meet the changes in the demand structure (this is a sufficient condition).

The part of the workers who cannot meet the changes in demand structure becomes unemployed, and the unsatisfied jobs become vacant. This constitutes an important feature of structural unemployment: unemployment and vacancies coexist. Because the reasons for the inconsistency of the labor supply and demand structure are various, the manifestations of the labor supply and demand structure inconsistency are also multifaceted. Based on this, structural unemployment can be divided into multiple types.

For example, due to major changes in the process, some people may lack the training and skills required by the new process, and they may have difficulty hiring. In the process of economic development, some sectors are developing rapidly, some sectors are shrinking, some regions are developing, and some regions are declining, which is enough to cause some people to lose their jobs. Discrimination against age, sex and migrant populations by some companies can also cause structural unemployment. In this case, the phenomenon of "unemployment and vacancy" coexist. That is, there is no work to do on the one hand, and no work to do on the other.

First, from the perspective of the causes of the inconsistency of the labor supply and demand structure, structural unemployment can be divided into the following types:

Structural adjustment unemployment

It refers to unemployment caused by changes in the structure of the economy, including the type of work, skills, technology, knowledge, and experience. The supply structure of labor cannot be changed accordingly. For example, the adjustment of China's industrial structure has led to a reduction in the demand for workers in the primary industry and traditional industries, and an increase in demand for workers in the tertiary industry and emerging industries. But different industries have different requirements on laborers' types of work, skills, knowledge, and experience. If the people who were engaged in the primary industry and the traditional industry could not make timely adjustments to their various qualities, they would not be able to smoothly transfer to the tertiary industry and emerging industries, leading to unemployment. In addition, the upgrading of the industrial structure will also promote the use of employers to improve the quality of workers, low-quality workers who do not meet the requirements of the original will fall into unemployment even if they have a job. At the same time, many enterprises lack skilled workers, especially senior workers: some high-tech enterprises lack related talents, which leads to vacancies.

System transition unemployment

Means due to

Structural unemployment is a kind of natural unemployment, but it lasts longer than frictional unemployment. Those who search for too long may be structural. Unlike frictional unemployment, structural unemployment tends to be concentrated among people who are just ordinary workers and do not have the skills that are particularly needed in the labor market; or they live in economically unattractive places where job opportunities are very high Few areas.

According to the characteristics of structural unemployment, the core of vocational guidance should be training. Participate in training to synchronize skills update with technological development. In addition, information transmission in the labor market should be strengthened to guide job seekers to understand the various types of labor market Supply and demand status of personnel and forecasting of supply and demand status.