Why is a 6% unemployment rate bad?

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I recently read news (that was presented in a very grim way) that a city’s unemployment rate rose to 6%.

So this means that out of all the people of working-age in that city, 94% of them were employed right?

Isn’t that a really good scenario? 94% is very close to 100% right?

I’m also surprised by this figure because the way the people are talking about the job market, it sounds like a huge number of people are unemployed and only a lucky few have jobs. Many people have said that about half of new-graduates cannot land their first job.

Am I missing something here?

In: Economics

9 Answers

Anonymous 0 Comments

6% unemployment doesn’t mean that 94% are working. Children, homemakers, retirees, disabled, chronically unemployed aren’t counted, etc. So you might have a situation where only 50% of the population is actually working.

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