Overview
Unemployment Rate provides annual unemployment data from the World Bank, based on ILO (International Labour Organization) modeled estimates. The data covers virtually every country in the world and is updated annually. Use this for economic analysis, country comparisons, and labor market research.
Live Test Unemployment Rate Grounding Data Source →
The tool
Once your client is connected to the VerveContext server, this appears in its tool list as UnemploymentRateGroundingData. It is read-only and open-world — it fetches and never mutates anything on your side — so most clients call it without asking you to confirm.
{
"name": "UnemploymentRateGroundingData",
"arguments": {
"country": "USA"
}
}You do not name the tool yourself; the model picks it. Asking about USA in the terms this source covers is enough for it to reach for UnemploymentRateGroundingData on its own — naming it explicitly also works, and is the way to force the call.
Connecting
One server URL covers every source in the catalog, including this one. Authorization is OAuth: the client opens a browser once, and there is no key to paste into a config file.
{
"mcpServers": {
"vervecontext": {
"url": "https://api.vervecontext.com/v1/mcp"
}
}
}https://api.vervecontext.com/v1/mcpPer-client setup — Claude, Cursor, VS Code, ChatGPT — is on the MCP setup page.
Arguments
These are the properties on the tool's inputSchema, so a well-behaved client validates them before the call is made. Premium arguments are accepted on every plan but only take effect on plans that include them.
| Argument | Type | Description |
|---|---|---|
countryRequired | string | ISO country code (2 or 3 letter). Examples: US, USA, DE, DEU, GB, GBR length 2–3 |
yearOptionalPremium | integer | Specific year to retrieve data for (1991-present). Returns latest if not specified. range 1991–2030 |
What the model gets back
The result carries a structuredContent object matching the tool's declared outputSchema, so a client reads fields without parsing prose. status is "ok" and error is null on success; a null field means the value was not available for that input, not that the call failed.
{
"status": "ok",
"error": null,
"data": {
"country": "USA",
"countryName": "United States",
"year": 2024,
"count": 1,
"historical": [
{
"year": 2024,
"rate": 4.02
}
]
},
"code": 200
}
Response fields
Paths are relative to data. Premium fields are absent rather than zeroed on plans that do not include them, so check for presence instead of comparing to 0.
| Field | Type | Example | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
country | string | USA | ISO code representing the country queried |
countryName | string | United States | Full official name of the country |
year | number | 2024 | Year of the unemployment data returned |
count | number | 1 | Number of historical records available |
historicalPremium | array[1] | Array of historical unemployment rates by year | |
historical.0.yearPremium | number | 2024 | Year for historical unemployment record |
historical.0.ratePremium | number | 4.02 | Unemployment rate as percentage of labor force |
Why ground on it
A model can produce something that looks like this answer from its training data, and be confidently out of date or simply wrong. This source returns the current value in a shape you can check, which is the difference between an answer you can cite and one you have to hedge.
Point an evaluation at countryName: it is the field most worth pinning a claim to, and it is either present and current or absent — never plausibly invented.
Failure modes
Errors come back as tool errors carrying a sentence the model can act on, not a bare status code. Error handling covers the full list.
| Status | What it means |
|---|---|
400 / 422 | The arguments did not validate. The message names the offending one. |
401 | The OAuth session is invalid or expired — reconnect the server. |
403 | Blocked by a key restriction or an IP allow-list. Never a bad identity. |
404 | This source is not part of VerveContext. Check the catalog. |
429 | Out of credits, or a brief rate limit. The message tells them apart. |
A call costs 2 credits each time the tool actually runs; a model that reasons about the tool without calling it costs nothing.
Use cases
- Economic Analysis
- Analyze unemployment trends to understand economic health and labor market conditions
- Country Comparison
- Compare unemployment rates across different countries and regions
- Historical Research
- Track unemployment changes over time to study economic cycles and policy impacts
- Investment Research
- Factor unemployment data into investment decisions and economic forecasting
Other ways to use Unemployment Rate Grounding Data
Set up Unemployment Rate Grounding Data on VerveContext, or reach the same source a different way. Your VerveContext account and credits work on all of them — one key, one balance.
Related
More in Finance: