What Was The Unemployment Rate In Ancient Rome?

Unemployment was certainly a huge problem - a major cause was slavery, which made it harder for paid workers to find jobs. This is one reason why so many young men joined the army.

Actual statistics are hard to find, but apparently in the later years of the Empire, huge amounts of grain were needed just to feed the unemployed - one website talks about 100,000 people just in the city of Rome itself.

In the 1st century aD, Rome had circa 1 million inhabitants. Of these, 1/3 were slaves and so the term "employed" doesn't apply. The riche qere... Rich.

The "rabble", people living in the streets and eating from the corn-dole (the government provided bread, 1kg per day per person) corresponded to 1/3 of the city. To these people, the terms employed ou precariously employed apply. So you can say that the figure was someting about 1/3 of the population.

Vittorio Pastelli