While the term “unemployment” can have negative connotations for many people, not all measurements of joblessness are undesirable. Employees voluntarily transferring to new positions, which is generally an indication of a robust economy, are referred to as frictional unemployment. Understanding this number can assist firms in better understanding why employees depart and improving overall retention rates.
In this post, we define frictional unemployment, analyze its origins and effects, and give strategies for firms to retain skilled employees.
What Is Frictional Unemployment?
Frictional unemployment happens when an economy’s voluntary employment transitions. A transitory period of unemployment is formed when people opt to transfer from one job to another and new workers enter the workforce for the first time.
Frictional unemployment can be seen in a growing, stable economy and is considered a component of natural unemployment, which is the lowest unemployment rate in an economy due to economic factors and labor movement.
You can determine the frictional unemployment rate by dividing the total labor force by the number of workers actively looking for work. Workers actively looking for work are often divided into three groups: those who have left their jobs, those who are returning to the labor, and new entrants.Â
Causes of Frictional Unemployment
#1. New Labor Market Entrants
Recent grads and other first-time job seekers may lack the resources or efficiency to locate a company that offers an open and suitable position for them. As a result, people avoid taking on additional work while waiting for better-paying opportunities. Temporary transitions, such as relocating to a different town or city, will also contribute to frictional unemployment, as there is typically a time lag between when workers lose their jobs and when they find new ones.
#2. Search for More Meaning
Workers who abandon their jobs in search of greater pay contribute to frictional unemployment. In other circumstances, employees may quit their jobs to return to school or learn a new skill because they believe the talent would help them earn more money. Others may leave the workforce due to personal reasons such as caring for a family member, illness, retirement, or pregnancy. When workers return to the labor force to look for jobs, they are classified as having frictional unemployment.
#3. Looking for new or better opportunities
People quitting their jobs without having another one lined up is an indicator that they “believe” the economy is strong enough to avoid unemployment. The “Quit Rate” has been a frequently followed barometer of consumer confidence in recent years. This tendency is also more likely to occur when individuals have had time to accumulate savings, allowing them to deal with months of unemployment.
#4. Unemployment Benefits
Government-paid unemployment benefits can occasionally contribute to frictional unemployment since the income helps people to be picky in choosing their next job, lengthening their time unemployed. It can also happen when organizations refuse to hire because they fear there aren’t enough competent people for the job.
Frictional unemployment can be a good sign that people are looking for better jobs freely, giving businesses with a larger pool of skilled potential employees.
The Effects of Frictional Unemployment
As with other forms of unemployment, there are ramifications for businesses and management. Employers may struggle to retain talent when frictional unemployment is high. Frictional unemployment frequently indicates that workers are considering different offers, waiting for good possibilities, and requiring investment from their employer in order to be maintained.
Frictional unemployment is also associated with a healthy economy. When the economy is fully running and enterprises have a higher number of available jobs, employees are more motivated to seek better chances.
Finally, frictional unemployment may affect how people live their lives. People may resort to seeking out new job opportunities if they are experiencing frictional unemployment. Similarly to how COVID-19 may have placed some people’s work preferences into perspective, friction unemployment may indicate that individuals are more concerned with a bigger purpose and finding better livelihoods.
The Benefits of Frictional Unemployment
Frictional unemployment arises in every economy with a free-moving workforce and is helpful since it indicates that people are actively pursuing better jobs. It also benefits businesses by providing them with a larger pool of potentially highly qualified people who apply for opportunities. It is temporary and thus has little impact on government resources.
By swiftly matching prospective job seekers with job openings, we can eliminate frictional unemployment. Workers can now utilize social media and job-posting websites to hunt for jobs, which can lead to faster hiring turnaround times.
Solutions to the Problem of Frictional Unemployment
While some frictional unemployment is desirable, too much might cause economic problems. Businesses can reduce frictional unemployment by using the following measures:
#1. Make employment information easily accessible.
People are less inclined to try to learn more about potential employment opportunities when they are ignorant of them. It is critical to improve the availability of information about open jobs in order to increase overall employment rates. Employers can accomplish this through a variety of channels, including online job boards, social media platforms, and advertising campaigns. The sooner potential companies and job seekers exchange employment information, the faster people find positions that match their requirements and capabilities.
This method is especially useful for businesses looking to hire internally. Advertisements of job openings to current employees can enhance retention rates and ensure eligible candidates for higher-level positions. Furthermore, employees value organizations that prioritize their professional development.
#2. Improve job flexibility
Job flexibility is frequently a desirable benefit. Among the methods for increasing employment flexibility are:
- Allowing employees to plan their workdays around their schedules or according to their most optimal work periods by providing flexible hours.
- Allowing employees to work remotely, which allows them to do tasks even if they do not live in the same city as the company.
- Incorporating part-time or half-day work choices to assist employees to manage their outside-of-work commitments
- Offering courses in skill development and training so that employees can improve their talents and potentially advance in their professions
#3. Provide relocation assistance
Because it broadens the pool of prospective job seekers, providing relocation help is an efficient approach to contribute to reduced frictional unemployment. Reimbursement for moving expenses, relocation bonuses, and contributions to an employee’s living expenses until they are settled in their new location are all examples of relocation help. These tactics assist employees in working during transitional periods and ensure that businesses can provide the assistance that their teams require.
Seasonal Unemployment vs. Frictional Unemployment
While both frictional and seasonal unemployment are voluntary, there are some significant variations. While frictional unemployment refers to people who are between jobs, seasonal unemployment refers to those who work in jobs that are only active during certain seasons, such as working on a political campaign or driving a snowplow. Both frictional and seasonal unemployment indicate future employment chances. However, those who are frictionally unemployed are typically looking for a career change that matches their talents. Seasonal unemployment occurs because there is a decline in demand for their labor.
Structural vs. Frictional Unemployment
Frictional Unemployment
Frictional unemployment is caused by workers transitioning between jobs:
For example, laid-off workers or persons entering the labor market for the first time, such as university graduates, may need time to discover the types of jobs they want at wage rates they are willing to accept. Many people are unemployed for a short period of time as they look for work.
If the unemployed are uninformed of potential jobs, imperfect information in the labor market may exacerbate frictional unemployment. Problems with incentives can also lead to some frictional unemployment, as some persons looking for work may choose not to accept paid labor if they believe the tax and benefit system would diminish the net increase in income from working. When this happens, the unemployed are less likely to accept jobs.
In brief, frictional unemployment occurs when the labor market takes time to connect available jobs with those looking for work. Because it illustrates the monthly amount of unfilled openings in the UK, the chart below is related to this cause of unemployment. After adjusting for seasonal fluctuations in labor demand, we discover that in the summer of 2008, there were still considerably over 600,000 vacancies at a period when unemployment was 1.65 million. If the economy did a better job of filling these positions, unemployment would be significantly lower.
Structural Unemployment
Structural unemployment happens when an industry’s long-run demand declines, resulting in a drop in employment due to worldwide competition.
Globalisation is an unavoidable reality of life, and it unavoidably leads to changes in trade patterns between countries from year to year. Britain has most likely lost its cost advantage in manufacturing goods such as automobiles, household goods, and audio-visual equipment for the foreseeable future; in fact, our manufacturing industry has lost over 400,000 jobs in the last five years alone as production has shifted to lower-cost centers such as Eastern Europe and emerging market countries in Far East Asia. Many of these employees may face a period of structural unemployment, especially if they live in areas with above-average unemployment rates and few job opportunities.
Structural unemployment occurs when a person’s skills do not match the needs of new job prospects.
Many unemployed workers in the industrial business (for example, coal, steel, and engineering) have found it difficult to obtain new jobs without investing in re-training. This is a supply-side cause of unemployment due to occupational immobility of labor.
Economic Stimulus and Frictional Unemployment
Frictional unemployment is the only type of unemployment that is mostly unaffected by government economic stimulation. In terrible economic circumstances, for example, the Federal Reserve Bank may cut interest rates to promote borrowing. The goal is that the additional funds will stimulate consumer and company expenditure, resulting in growth and a reduction in unemployment. However, additional money does not solve the underlying causes of frictional unemployment, other than potentially providing some people the bravery to become unemployed while looking for a new job. Nonetheless, as previously said, a difficult economic environment would most likely preclude such a decision.
What Is the Root Cause of Structural Unemployment?
Frictional unemployment is primarily generated by voluntary job changes within a well-functioning economy. Frictional unemployment is frequently caused by people willingly leaving their jobs in search of better compensation, opportunities, or work-life balance.
Why is Frictional Unemployment A Problem?
Employers may find it challenging to deal with frictional unemployment since employees are more willing to leave their positions. Companies must be careful to invest in high achievers, or else those employees will look for other chances. On the other side, job seekers may face difficulties as a result of frictional unemployment. Because more people are seeking employment freely, there may be more competition, making it more difficult for workers to secure new positions.
What’s the Difference Between Frictional and Cyclical Unemployment?
The inherent ebb and flow of the economy causes cyclical employment. More jobs are produced and more workers are employed as the economy grows. As the economy cools, those positions may be lost, resulting in cyclical unemployment. Frictional unemployment, on the other hand, generally happens while the economy is doing well. When workers voluntarily seek out alternative possibilities to improve their lives and careers, this is referred to as frictional unemployment.
In Conclusion
Frictional unemployment is a normal economic phenomenon that occurs while the economy is performing well. Workers may decide that it is time to pursue other possibilities, return to school, care for family, or simply improve their lives outside of work. Frictional unemployment continues to be an issue for the economy, despite the fact that it is not as long-term as structural or cyclical unemployment.
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