When there is no work to do on farms, people go to urban areas to look for jobs. This kind of unemployment is known as :

Question

Accepted Answer

The correct option is 3: Seasonal unemployment.

Seasonal unemployment occurs when people are unemployed at specific times of the year because of the seasonal nature of their work. Agriculture in India, for example, is highly dependent on specific planting, harvesting, and sowing seasons. When the busy agricultural season ends (e.g., after the harvest), farm laborers have no work to do on the land for several months. During this "off-season," these workers migrate to urban areas to find alternative employment, such as daily wage labor in construction or small industries. This pattern is the very definition of seasonal unemployment, as the joblessness is predictable and tied directly to the annual cycle of their primary economic activity.

The incorrect option is 1: Structural unemployment.
Structural unemployment arises from a mismatch between the skills workers possess and the skills required by the available jobs, or due to fundamental, long-term changes in the economy, like the decline of an industry (e.g., factory workers losing jobs due to automation). This type of unemployment is chronic and deep-rooted, lasting for a long period until workers retrain or the economy restructures. It is not tied to the annual calendar or specific seasons, but rather to a permanent change in the structure of the economy. The movement of farm workers during the lean season is a temporary phenomenon, not a result of a long-term economic shift or skill mismatch.

The incorrect option is 2: Disguised unemployment.
Disguised unemployment, also known as underemployment, refers to a situation where more people are employed in a job than are actually needed to produce the output. In this case, even if some workers are removed, the total production remains unchanged. This is very common in agriculture, where family members often work together on a small plot of land. However, the question describes a situation where people have "no work to do" and migrate; this is overt unemployment. Disguised unemployment means they are working but contributing nothing extra, whereas seasonal unemployment means they are actively jobless during the non-farming period.

The incorrect option is 4: Cyclical unemployment.
Cyclical unemployment is caused by fluctuations in the business cycle—that is, it rises during economic recessions or depressions when aggregate demand falls, and falls during periods of economic boom. In a recession, businesses cut production and lay off workers across various sectors. The unemployment described in the question is localized to the agricultural sector and is a result of yearly weather and farming patterns, not a widespread decline in the national or global economy. Therefore, it is unrelated to the cyclical ups and downs of the market economy.