This report will detail the largest four types; frictional, structural, cyclical and long-term. Structural unemployment. Amadeo (2014) describes this form of unemployment as being "when there is a mis-match between the jobs available and the skill levels of the unemployed". In 1989, jobs were becoming rapidly available in the Australian economy in every industry, bar the power industry which was shrinking. Though jobs expanded everywhere else, those who were retrenched in the power industry did not have the skills to transition to a new industry of employment. Looking towards the future, Morgan (2010) argues that "Australia's population is aging, meaning less students entering schools and therefore, teachers will lose their jobs." This is correct, and although the aged care industry will rapidly expand, teachers will not have the skills to transition to this industry. Frictional Unemployment is described by Thoma (2011) as when "workers are temporarily unemployed as they move from one job to another." Frictional unemployment shows that the workforce is mobile and has confidence in the economy, because many workers will only leave one job if they are confident that they will get another. According to the February 2013 Labour Mobility Survey, conducted by the Australian Bureau of Statistics, 2.1 million people changed jobs and temporarily experienced frictional unemployment. This is approximately representative of 17% of the total labour force, and as Morgan (2010) argues is "indicative of high consumer confidence as people will stay in jobs they don't like if they don't feel they can get another in reasonable time.".
Finally, another major type of unemployment in the Australian economy is cyclical unemployment. The media reports the most on this type of unemployment, which is best described by Thoma (2011) as "workers losing their jobs due to business cycle fluctuations in output – that labour is a derived demand, so as production falls, the demand for labour also falls.
