There are a number of ways unemployment could impact on the education sector and its microenvironment, it all depends what "kind" of unemployment we are talking about:
Structural unemployment seems like the most relevant phenomenon to the scenario mentioned. Structural unemployment simply means that
It's essentially caused by a variance in the number of people who want to work in an industry, and the number of positions available."at a given wage, the quantity of labor supplied exceeds the quantity of labor demanded"
How unemployment influence the micro environment in the education industry
There are two ways you could approach this question, and I will present them very simply:
- Unemployment tends to either affect people within a specific industry that has been hard hit (such as the mining industry when coal production was scaled down), or will make it difficult for unskilled workers to find jobs, because jobs are at such a premium that even relatively unskilled jobs are being competed for by skilled workers.
In this scenario, learning having an in demand skill is a highly desirable thing - and this will impact on education as people seek to acquire those skills through education, university, or vocational learning programs. - The second dynamic way in which unemployment can affect the education microenvironment is where people previously employed in other sectors that have suffered due to a phenomenon such as an economic downturn, turn to the education sector as a means of employment.
Essentially, people who were formerly bankers, lawyers or professionals in other fields, often turn to teaching finance, law, or their particular specialism - when jobs applying this knowledge dry up.
Although this is a less talked-about angle to the unemployment-education dynamic, I think it's a valid and interesting one.
Here's an interesting (and relatively short) lecture that addresses some of the topics I have briefly mentioned. Have a look: