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One free scan finds every outdated or missing driver and matches the right update for your exact hardware.Free scan · exact hardware matchFrictional unemployment is temporary joblessness while someone searches for a job or moves between jobs. It is the time needed to match a worker with suitable work: for example, a recent graduate looking for a first position, or an employee who leaves a job to find a better fit. It can occur even when the economy is healthy.
What causes frictional unemployment?
Frictional unemployment comes from the time and effort involved in finding a job and matching workers with available positions. Workers enter the labor force, leave jobs, and look for new ones for many reasons. A person may be seeking work that better suits their skills or lifestyle; a new graduate may be beginning a first job search; or someone may be returning to work after time away.
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The term describes the economic reason for the temporary gap, not a guarantee that every search will be brief. It also does not mean the person lacks useful skills or that the economy is in a downturn.
Janet Yellen, then chair of the Federal Reserve Board, described why this kind of joblessness can persist in a strong economy: “This so-called frictional unemployment is evident even in the healthiest of economies.” (Federal Reserve Board speech, January 18, 2017.)
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How frictional unemployment differs from structural and cyclical unemployment
These categories describe different sources of joblessness. The distinction matters because a job-search transition is not the same problem as a mismatch between workers and available jobs or a broad decline in labor demand.
| Type | Main cause | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Frictional | Time spent searching for and matching with a job | A graduate actively looking for a first position, or a worker searching for a better-fit job. |
| Structural | Workers’ skills or locations do not align with available jobs | A worker’s skills are no longer in demand locally, or relevant jobs are in places the worker cannot move to. |
| Cyclical | A recession reduces demand for goods, services, and workers | Employers cut jobs as spending and economic activity contract. |
Responses can differ as well. Workforce development may help address some skill mismatches, while a recession-related drop in labor demand is a different challenge. Monetary policy has limited influence over structural factors such as skills and geography, as Yellen noted in her 2017 speech; no single policy resolves every worker’s circumstances.
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How the U.S. unemployment measure counts job seekers
The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) uses the Current Population Survey (CPS) to classify people by their labor-market status. Its unemployment measure is based on survey criteria, not on whether a person’s joblessness is frictional, structural, or cyclical.
In general, the CPS classifies someone as unemployed if, during the reference week, they had no job, were available to work, and made at least one specific, active effort to find a job during the four weeks ending with that week. Someone on temporary layoff who expects to be recalled is an exception to the active-search requirement. See the BLS CPS concepts and definitions.
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What counts as active job search?
Examples include contacting an employer or recruiter, sending a résumé or application, interviewing, using an employment agency, or seeking job leads through friends or social networks. Simply reading job listings or attending training does not, by itself, count as active search under CPS rules. The BLS explains these distinctions in How the Government Measures Unemployment.
How the unemployment rate is calculated
The unemployment rate is the number of unemployed people divided by the labor force—the employed plus the unemployed—then multiplied by 100. A person without a job who has not actively searched in the previous four weeks is generally counted as outside the labor force rather than unemployed. That is why the economic idea of frictional unemployment and the official survey definition are related but not interchangeable.
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Is there an official frictional unemployment rate?
The BLS publishes the overall unemployment rate and broader measures of labor underutilization, but the cited BLS materials do not provide a separate monthly frictional-unemployment rate. The standard unemployment rate also does not report official counts split into frictional, structural, and cyclical causes. For that reason, a precise current frictional rate or a typical duration should not be inferred from the overall rate.
For more context on how joblessness and labor-force status are measured, see the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis’ guide to making sense of unemployment data and its overview of unemployment dynamics.
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