A seasonal industry is activity within an economic sector in which the majority of operations take place during only part of the year, generally in the context of a single country or region. In some cases, as with agriculture

Agriculture

Agriculture is the cultivation of animals, plants, fungi and other life forms for food, fiber, and other products used to sustain life. Agriculture was the key implement in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created food surpluses that nurtured the...

, this limitation may relate to climate

Climate

Climate encompasses the statistics of temperature, humidity, atmospheric pressure, wind, rainfall, atmospheric particle count and other meteorological elemental measurements in a given region over long periods...

 or other forces of nature. In others, the seasonality may relate to annual variations in human activity (for example, tourism

Tourism

Tourism is travel for recreational, leisure or business purposes. The World Tourism Organization defines tourists as people "traveling to and staying in places outside their usual environment for not more than one consecutive year for leisure, business and other purposes".Tourism has become a...

, restaurant

Restaurant

A restaurant is an establishment which prepares and serves food and drink to customers in return for money. Meals are generally served and eaten on premises, but many restaurants also offer take-out and food delivery services...

s, some forms of manufacturing

Manufacturing

Manufacturing is the use of machines, tools and labor to produce goods for use or sale. The term may refer to a range of human activity, from handicraft to high tech, but is most commonly applied to industrial production, in which raw materials are transformed into finished goods on a large scale...

).

Seasonal industries often feature large swings in labor force size, and in many cases, precipitate mass migrations of workers

Migrant worker

The term migrant worker has different official meanings and connotations in different parts of the world. The United Nations' definition is broad, including any people working outside of their home country...

.

In those countries that provide them, unemployment benefit

Unemployment benefit

Unemployment benefits are payments made by the state or other authorized bodies to unemployed people. Benefits may be based on a compulsory para-governmental insurance system...

s may be affected by a worker's seasonal status. That is, in certain cases, a seasonal worker may not be considered "unemployed" during the off-season for the sake of benefits or aggregated statistics, despite being functionally inactive.