Your mayor just announced that the local unemployment rate d

Your mayor just announced that the local unemployment rate dropped last month from the prior month. It went from 10.5% to 10.4%. Is this a significant drop? Explain.

Solution

The unemployment rate is a way to estimate the degree of unemployment within a certain area (city, state/province, country). Approximating the number of unemployed people within a given area and dividing by the approximate number of employed people within that same area determine the unemployment rate. The unemployment rate is expressed as a percentage.

I am taking this as you asking me for an opinion here and if you have 1,000 workers in your local economy that means that a change in unemployment from 10.5% to 10.4% means that there are now 104 people unemployed instead of 105 people unemployed. At the rate of one fewer person unemployed the real impact is almost nothing for the community as a whole.