Unemployment Rate

Today on the show — what it means to lose a job right now when the mandate for most of us is: Stay home.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics website explains how the unemployment rate in the United States is measured.

A person is unemployed if he or she is without work and is actively seeking paid work. Knowing the amount of unemployment in an economy would help gauge the overall health of that economy. Human activity in paid work can be one of the biggest resources a country has. The number of employed alone is not so meaningful.