Unemployment is a state of being without a paid job. Many governments offer benefits to help people through periods of unemployment. Unemployment can be caused by a variety of issues. The three main types are frictional, structural, and cyclical. Frictional unemployment arises when workers change jobs or lose their job due to business-cycle fluctuations, such as a recession. Structural unemployment can also be caused by permanent changes in the economy, such as when new technology replaces older machines or when a company relocates to another country.
The government calculates the unemployment rate from a monthly survey of households. People are counted as unemployed if they have been without a job for four weeks or more and have actively searched for work in the last four weeks. This excludes people who are not in the labor force and those who have no jobs, but would like to work (discouraged workers). The survey sample is changed each month.
There are some differences between the unemployment rates of different countries, which can be partly explained by labour market policies. For example, stronger unions and strict labour regulations can make it harder for companies to hire workers and therefore increase unemployment. Other reasons include a cultural or linguistic barrier, discrimination, and limited training opportunities. High unemployment can harm an economy by reducing consumer spending, which is one of the major driving forces for economic growth. It can also lead to dissatisfaction among citizens and increase social unrest, which can be dangerous for the political stability of a country.