[glenstein]

I think the context in this case is the usual, everyday awareness of typical unemployment rates, which politically conscious individuals tend to have.

For instance, at the very least people probably have heard that U.S. unemployment has been anywhere from 9% to 5% in recent years. And we know that things were pretty bad when unemployment was 9%, and surely 24% is a lot worse than 9%.

If you were good at U.S. history, you might recall that our great depression had similar unemployment rates. There's just about no context where that's a good number.

[eru]

I grew up in parts of East Germany that had 27% for years. Not pretty.