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unemployment rate

unemployment rate

149 3.4
The percentage of people looking for work who do not have a job
  • noun
  • /ˌʌnɪmˈplɔɪmənt reɪt/
  • Specialized
translation icon : tasa de desempleo
  • South Philadelphia, where most of them lived, had the highest unemployment rate in town.
  • high unemployment rate
  • percent unemployment rate
  • low unemployment rate

I think that it will scale down as unemployment rates come down.

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Examples

  • In Turkey, the unemployment rate among women is higher than the unemployment rate among men.

    Academic text (2008)
  • We did a little analysis a couple of months ago in terms of the current unemployment rate.

    Academic text (1999)
  • I think that it will scale down as unemployment rates come down.

  • But the unemployment rate in Canada is twice what it is here.

  • Second, we measure the average unemployment rate in the service area during the period from 2008 to 2010.

    Academic text (2015)
  • For much of the decade, the American unemployment rate has been three points lower than in Canada.

    Academic text (1996)
  • As late as 1993, the unemployment rate remained stuck at 12 percent.

    Academic text (2008)
  • Switzerland has one of the lowest unemployment rates in the world, lower than any country in the EU.

  • We learned that the unemployment rate has fallen to its lowest level in nearly two years as our economy added another 222,000 private sector jobs in the last month.

  • The unemployment rate in the United States decreased to 4.2% last quarter.

Surface Forms

Morphology

unemployment + rate

The meaning 'the percentage of the labor force that is unemployed' is directly derived from combining 'unemployment' (being without a job) with 'rate' (a measured proportion), so the concept is compositionally transparent. This noun–noun measurement construction is common across languages and follows standard English patterns, so a B1 learner who knows both constituents should understand it.

Etymology

The compound unemployment rate comes from two parts, unemployment meaning people not working, and rate meaning a 'percentage' that shows part of a whole. So, it literally means the 'percentage' of people who are 'jobless', which is why we use it to show how healthy the job market is.