Types of Unemployment in India- UPSC Prelims

It is a phenomenon wherein more people are employed than actually needed.

It is primarily traced in the agricultural and unorganised sectors of India.

It is unemployment that occurs during certain seasons of the year.

Agricultural labourers in India rarely have worked throughout the year.

It is a category of unemployment arising from the mismatch between the jobs available in the market and the skills of the available workers in the market.

Many people in India do not get jobs due to a lack of requisite skills and due to poor education levels, it becomes difficult to train them.

It is a result of the business cycle, where unemployment rises during recessions and declines with economic growth.

Cyclical unemployment figures in India are negligible. It is a phenomenon that is mostly found in capitalist economies.

It is the loss of jobs due to changes in technology.

In 2016, World Bank data predicted that the proportion of jobs threatened by automation in India is 69% year-on-year.

Frictional Unemployment also called Search Unemployment, refers to the time lag between the jobs when an individual is searching for a new job or is switching between the jobs.

In other words, an employee requires time for searching for a new job or shifting from the existing to a new job, this inevitable time delay causes frictional unemployment.

It is often considered voluntary unemployment because it is not caused due to the shortage of jobs, but in fact, the workers themselves quit their jobs in search of better opportunities.

This means, people, working informally, without proper job contracts and thus sans any legal protection.

These persons are deemed ‘unemployed’ since records of their work are never maintained.

It is one of the main types of unemployment in India.