[This is part of the series: The Complete Guide To Economics 101.]
What is structural unemployment?
Structural Unemployment is unemployment caused by advances in technology.
This is what Joseph Schumpeter meant when he said “creative destruction.”
Simply: Innovation puts some out of business.
You want examples?
- Since the internet, experienced printers have lost their jobs
- Cotton pickers found other jobs when cotton harvesting became mechanized
- Investment professionals have lost many jobs to computers
- And buggy makers became obsolete when the car became available to the masses
