The article considers the social and economic consequences of unemployment and factors that affect them and determine the extent of their display. The pertinence of this topic stems from the fact that today unemployment is becoming an integral part of Russian life, which affect greatly both socio-economic and political situation. Also, unemployment is inseparably linked with occurring structural shifts in the national and world economy. As a complex and controversial macroeconomic phenomenon, it remains in the focus of attention of both the population and the scientific community. This is due to the fact that in Russia the unemployment problem has sharply worsened in recent years, the number of unemployed has begun to increase. That is why it is important to pay the most careful attention to this issue. Overcoming unemployment is one of the main problems of the state. The topic under consideration is very relevant for all countries of the world community. Unemployment needs an in-depth scientific and comprehensive research, reduction to the minimum acceptable level, as well as the development of effective ways to overcome it. Materials and methods: the material for this article was an analytical review of the scientific works of domestic authors in recent years. Results: as historical experience shows, high unemployment can cause quite serious disasters in the political arena. During the Great Depression in the parliamentary elections in Germany, Italy, Spain and Japan, the democratic forces suffered a crushing defeat. The countries established national socialist, dictatorial and fascist regimes, which became a prerequisite for the Second World War. This gives many economists and politicians an occasion to be very wary of the existing problem of unemployment, as well as to be unanimous in their extremely negative assessment of its consequences. Unemployment is an inevitable phenomenon in a market economy that needs to be controlled. Three groups of factors considered at the macro, meso, and micro levels, considered in the article, have different effects on this problem. Each of these levels has its own factors that should be equally successfully controlled in order to keep unemployment at a natural level. The increased competition between workers in the labor market for the most prestigious jobs is likely to lead to the fact that separate and fairly large groups of the country's working population will be forced to take up prestigious jobs, which, moreover, are of no interest to them. Therefore, such labor activity will have a “compelled” character, such work cannot be highly efficient and does not provide the necessary quality of work. Moreover, in these conditions it is impossible to form stable production teams. Consequently, in this situation it is impossible to talk about the achievement of full employment by society, since a significant part of employees will constantly strive to change “forced” work.