eli5: Why is high unemployment rate bad and why are people who are employed still worried about this even though they have a job?
In: Economics
Essentially, the unemployed population makes up what is called the “reserve army of labor”. Having this reserve is bad for the already-employed because it gives business owners more leverage against their employees, particularly regarding wages or benefits. An employeed person is pressured not to organize or pursue higher wages because the employer can more easily fire them and replace them with one of the many desperate unemployed people who are probably content working for much less money, because even the bare minimum is better than nothing at all. The more unemployed people there are, the more competition exists between them between the available jobs, driving them to settle for lower wages, less benefits, or more demoralizing conditions.
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