Following are the common types of unemployment:

1. Voluntary Unemployment: Voluntary unemployment is a situation where workers are not willing to work on prevailing wage rates. In the words of Prof. Dillard, “Voluntary unemployment exists when potential workers are unwilling to accept the going wages or slightly less than going wages.”

2. Involuntary Unemployment: Involuntary unemployment is contrary to the voluntary unemployment. It is a situation in which the workers are ready to work at prevailing wage rates or even less than prevailing wage rates, but they do not get work. In this way involuntary unemployment is forced on the worker. According to Prof. J.M. Keynes, “Involuntary unemployment is a condition in which a person is willing to work at lower real wages than the current real wages whether or not he is willing to accept the lower money wages.”

3. Open Unemployment: In this type of unemployment labourers have not any work to do. He can get even less work. In the lack of work labourers completely remain unemployed. This type of unemployment exists in urban sectors like industrial unemployment and educated unemployment.

4. Seasonal Unemployment: Seasonal unemployment exists due to the seasonal nature of some occupations. For example, agricultural workers get work for few months in a year. Labourers in sugar mills get work from November to April and for other months they remain seasonal unemployed.

5. Structural Unemployment: Structural unemployment exists due to the change in the industrial structure. If we replace old machine for new machine, so during this replacement period worker remain unemployed. This type of unemployment is called structural unemployment.

6. Frictional Unemployment: Frictional unemployment comes into existence due to the mobility of the economy and imperfections in the labour market. In the words of Prof. Dillard, “Frictional unemployment exists when men are temporarily out of work because of imperfections in the labour market.”

Thus frictional unemployment exists in the economy due to immobility of labour in different industries, seasonal nature of some occupations, breakdown of the machinery and ignorance of job opportunities, etc.