The type of unemployment caused by the decline of certain types of industries and changes in production processes is called structural. Its main reasons are two: a change in the structure of demand for various products, as well as changes in the sectoral structure of the economy. Demand for products is constantly changing, while in one case it is increasing, in the second case there is a sharp drop. This leads to the fact that employment is declining, workers have to be fired. Structural unemployment may also be caused by changes in the industrial structure of production. Over time, once important and necessary industries disappear, for example, such as the production of black and white televisions or steam locomotives. They are being replaced by more modern ones - the production of computer equipment, mobile phones, LCD televisions, etc. In this regard, the demand for professions in the economy is changing. For example, such professions as a coachman, glassblower, and a flashlight disappeared, and instead of them appeared the profession of designer, programmer, marketer, etc. Thus, structural unemployment indicates that there is a mismatch between the structure of the workforce and the structure of jobs. Simply put, those people who have both a profession and a skill level can be fired, and only because they do not meet the modern requirements of the industry structure.
Structural unemployment unites those people who lost their jobs due to changes in the structure of demand for various industrial products. When there is a rise in the development of a particular industry, the demand for its products increases sharply, which means that there is a need to expand the staff of employees. When the demand for industrial products falls, production has to be reduced, and workers must be laid off. The level of structural unemployment is calculated as the ratio of the number of all structural unemployed to the total number of the entire labor force, which is expressed as a percentage.
Structural unemployment is often compared with frictional unemployment. And yet, both of these species have significant differences from each other. Perhaps the most important difference is that frictional unemployed people have skills that they can use, while structural unemployed people will not be able to get a job without preliminary retraining, since the skills that they already have remain unclaimed. Both of these types of unemployment are related mainly to job searches, only this search has its duration. Structural unemployment can last a very long time, so finding a job in modern industries without the same retraining and retraining is simply impossible. In the case of frictional unemployed, they can find work much faster, often it can take 2-3 days at all. At the same time, both types of unemployment are a natural and inevitable phenomenon, even in the most developed countries. And all this is connected with the same demand structure and industry structure, which are characterized by constant variability, the greatest attention to which is provided by scientific and technological progress. In this regard, the development of the economy will then fall, then rise, thereby provoking the preservation of structural unemployment. There is an opinion that any unemployment is a necessary phenomenon for the normal functioning of the economy. One can argue with this statement, because the very concept of unemployment cannot be completely positive, especially if its indicators increase sharply. High structural unemployment speaks of violations in the management and organization of labor.