Unemployment affects the community – including parks and schools.

Unemployment – for you – may seem far away. But even if you are enjoying the money that’s deposited directly into your bank account like magic – only the stressful kind with bosses and deadlines and alarm clocks – other peoples’ job losses could become your problem.

First, let’s get something straight, and that’s the definition of unemployment. The word describes the percent of the population actively looking for jobs but unable to find them. Students and stay-home moms are not unemployed, as they’re considered out of the labor market (despite the last group experiencing labor so painful it required medication.)

If you want a paycheck – or perhaps more accurately, need a paycheck – then you typically have bills. Skip a mortgage payment and the bank gets cranky, perhaps enough to foreclose on your home. Too much of that in your neighborhood will lower your own property value. Speaking of property, home taxes tend to fund community services, such as schools and parks. The people without jobs have trouble paying taxes, and those people could be co-funding the very places your kids learn and play.

In the United States right now, 6.2 percent of all people want jobs but can’t find them – they’re unemployed. See how your local community compares…..