The NY Times, Jan. 1, 2012 at BU7, gave unemployment rates by level of academic achievement. The rate started at 13.2 percent for those with no high school diploma, dropped to 8.8 percent for those with only a high school diploma, and dropped almost a further half to 4.4 percent for those with a college degree. If you take those three jobless rates, you could extrapolate to 2 percent or less for graduates of law school and perhaps even slightly lower for those who passed the bar and at some time held an in-house position. Perhaps.
Economists refer to a base rate of unemployment that is ever present simply because of job changes due to spousal moves, mergers, and other reasons. Could the unemployment rate of lawyers who have practiced in a company be as low as one or two percent?