> Why do people focus on aggregate unemployment metrics so much? ... Is "employing" XX% of your population in virtual indentured servitude supposed to be someth

> Why do people focus on aggregate unemployment metrics so much? ... Is "employing" XX% of your population in virtual indentured servitude supposed to be something politicians are proud of? The answer is multipart and long, but a couple of highlights are; - - the social point that work is a "quadruple remedy" against deprivation, boredom and isolation, social disrepute, and mental illness. Phrased positively: work gives a person material comforts, social contact, respectability, and self-respect. Edit: this applies no matter the content of the job or the working conditions. Simply "having a job", any job, provides these things in some measure. - another aggregate measure, the Gini index, bears on the answer. If a country has both a low Gini index (inequality) and low employment, then unemployed people are able to properly participate in society in that country. The answer in that case might be "no". Trouble is, such countries are as common as rainbow-colored hens' teeth.