Vermillion City has a 17.4% unemployment rate 

Everyone complaining that I said a character from sun and moon looks like a character from x and y is unemployed.

Vermillion being a Red State with one out of place liberal couple is the most important and accurate piece of Pokémon lore I've ever heard.

I like to imagine the Eevee is the enumerator, and is just using the trainer kid as a vehicle to navigate these human cities

the analysis of the political atmosphere in Vermillion City was my favorite part.

Employment survey in Skyrim: "I followed this guy and saw him mining stuff in the mine so he's employed" Employment survey in Pokemon: "This guy has his sleeves rolled up and is complaining about crime so he's employed"

Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door would be excellent for this series, since you can use Goombella to learn more about every character in the game, along with all their dialogue options.

the one queer couple in the conservative town only interested in their hobbies and getting out of there is tooooo real

I’ve mentioned it before but I’ll mention it again; I love the detail you put into the EMPLOYED and UNEMPLOYED labels. I just noticed they have shadows now and that’s so awesome

you don't understand how excited I get when a new unemployment video comes out. I don't even know why but brain happy

On a series scale, these videos have actually taught me a lot about world-building and writing. The implied rate of working citizens seems to change the tone of a setting in really unique ways- even in similarly cheery games, like Delfino Plaza vs. Viridian City. Heck, even different Pokémon towns compared together.

I'm impressed by how much you managed to figure out about not just the employment situation, but the politics of this city.

"I believe you. *Sigh* Do you have a job?" absolutely killed me.

With Surge being American/Unovan, Vermillion is probably intended to be something like Okinawa, so a military base city.

Austin’s ability to manifest a narrative from a string of unrelated design choices never ceases to amaze me

I used to make this joke in the 4th grade in 1998 when Pokemon first released on Gameboy: "So who's Lieutennant Surge's Dad, General Electric?!". I have not ever been as clever in my life ever again.

i didnt expect to get a solid argument for Vermillion City's political affiliation when I clicked on this video, but man you made some very compelling points. excellent work as always, I love these videos so much

Honestly i love the little stories he makes up to explain all the Pokemon weirdness

I'd posit that some of the employment is simply not visible at time of survey-during the day, all the boats are out on the water, so you were unable to account for any shipping and fishing that wasn't done on land. It's also possible that Vermilion runs on a seasonal economy based around tourism (the cruise ship) and since you came off-season a few of those seemingly unemployed folks were actually just on break. I also think that young couple in the PokeMart could have both been employed. And the Pokemon Fan Club chairman is probably not employed in that he isn't getting a salary. It's probably a hobbyist organization that he runs for fun in his retirement because he's rich and has the money to pay for his passion project. I agree about the assistant, but do employers who hire personal assistants but don't have paid jobs themselves still count as employed?

Correct, that tourist is Mina from Sun and Moon. In those games, she's decades older and is a professional artist + trial captain. Trial captains run the Alolan equivalent of the gym circut, leading the children of Alola on a "coming of age" journey across the islands and evaluating their progress. As well, they take care of culturally important "totem Pokemon" which I would say is an important job to the locals. Rest assured, in the future Mina will be very employed. Even if she's a slacker.

so close yet so far identifying where mina ('kantonian trainer' lady) is from - she's alolan, so sun/moon

I love Austin's ability to make me deeply invested in topics I would never care about

I understand this series is sticking with this specific remake's version of Kanto, but thinking back on the early episode where the potion guy had his line changed to remove the reference to the PokeMart (retroactively unemploying him), I'm curious what the age demographics of Vermillion originally were, the amount of elderly people here is weird. It's weirder thinking that somebody at Game Freak made an active choice to put them there. Also, "Kantonian" is an understandable but awful sounding and looking word.

"If you go to an anime convention you don't assume those people are employed; in fact you assume they are unemployed" ABSOLUTELY SAVAGE AUSTIN

Your content is always so hilarious while being so very serious and all business. I love it.

This is the best brand of dry humour.

07:15 It's not a gun control thing it's a pitbull control thing.

Was not expecting to get an analysis of Kanto's political districting today, but we're here for it

The little girl with the fairy type Pokemon you ran into around the four minute mark is actually Alolan! She grows up to be the fairy type Trial Captain in Sun and Moon, so you were right about her being a foreigner.

I love hearing the clicking of the pen and shuffling of papers. Thank you for another wonderful survey and presentation 👏

I feel like this series was tailor made for me, this is the kinda shit I love; going over world building details you don't think about with a fine toothed comb, and discovering a narrative from it.

I love how much you can infer from the npcs from context clues it's so interesting coming up with stories. I used to do that with XY and some houses had three men and one bed like that gives me a lot of material on it's own

I bet Hoenn would be quite a good location for enumeration. they really fleshed out the towns in those games, if I remember right

I imagine most of the labor in Vermillion is seasonal, given it's a port town. It seems to be early spring in Kanto at the time of the report, given the lush grass and general humidity outside coastal areas. The town is likely on the tail-end of a lull in work due to harsh winter waters around Japan preventing the regular incoming ships, thus reducing the need for labor. As such, the harbor likely employs people on a month-by-month basis, paying well enough for people to put down payments towards housing, food, and entertainment, all of which is likely inexpensive in Vermillion due to its relatively small size allowing for easier navigation, and port status ensuring plenty of food resources, even if it's primarily fish and dried goods. This would also explain the influx of elderly and youth members; retirees, students, and fresh graduates making the most of their time by working the season, but not overworking themselves, giving them more time for hobbies and the like. The lack of extraneous expenditures would explain the relatively well-off nature of the people living here, as well as the more conservative viewpoints; they simply don't live in a part of the world with much strife or imbalance. Tourism and limited land area, however, would make it difficult for new people to move in, at least until the older population passes or somebody moves away, so money is likely somewhat stagnant here. Vermillion's docks and Pokemon center likely make a quite sizable sum of money, and most of it is likely spent in Saffron, which at the time of the report, had just been through a city-wide shutdown due to Team Rocket attacks. That itself may be why so little was being done on that day in particular, and why morality and crime were a hot topic in the marts.

idk if you take suggestions for towns to do these videos for, but edgewater from the outer worlds would fit this perfectly. the lore of the world basically says that if you're not employed, you get kicked out of town, especially in edgewater. i wanna see if they have a 100% employment rate because of this

I love the way he clicks his pen at seemingly random times

May I suggest doing a Restaurant Critique of the establishments in Pokemon X and Y? Quite a number of those places have actual star ratings, you know.

I'd love to see some Scarlet and Violet analysis at some point. Also worth noting that Lt. Surge was a military official in another country (he was originally dubbed "the Lightning American" but has been retconned to be probably from Unova)

The report section is my fave part. Love the addition of gameplay in the corner to give context to what you're referring to in the report

You are taking your punitive punishment in stride and really stepping it up as a Bureau employee!!

I notice that the city has a lot of elderly men, but seemingly no elderly women. The oldest women seem to be the nurse and the police officer, maybe the red dress ladies, who I would say are in their 40s at the latest. What is causing these women to leave or disappear? Perhaps the local government has descriminatory employment practices and that is why the only employed women are with federal agencies or being an assistant to the president of the fan club.

Never played Pokémon so I’m accepting your theories of Sarges military connections funding this town to be canon

I cannot explain why I love this series so much, but I am glad to be in the timeline where I get to enjoy this

The "XY girl" is a Trial Captain in Alola, which is Sun Moon/Ultra Sun Ultra Moon. I don't know if this is a younger version of her or if that's just the result of the art style, but assuming the latter, she is employed... just not anywhere in this region.

Is the shadow on the employment icon new or am I just now noticing it? Incredible attention to detail either way.

w/r/t the Lass/Miniskirt trainer class: They are designed to look like they're wearing school uniforms so you can write them off automatically on the assumption they're students. Mina is indeed from Alola. She's the trial captain of Poni Island.

That line about the anime convention made me burst out laughing

4:00 MIna is from Alola 😁

the shoutout at the end of nakey jakeys npc video was so dope, glad you’re getting recognition for the effort you put in these vids

The Skyrim ones are my favourites The semi-realistic world makes it more hilarious 😄

The Nakey Jakey army is here

Unrelated to this video but I wanted to mention that your request to watch multiple videos of yours in a row to boost engagement has fundamentally changed how I use RU-vid, thanks Austin!

13:53 I didn’t see the lass in the corner at first, so I thought you were implying the birdkeeper was in a relationship with his Pidgey. With how some of those trainers talk about their birds, it wouldn’t surprise me.

People continuing to work into old age and not retiring is a sign of a declining economy

Dude! You got a shout from the one and only NakeyJakey. I can't remember what year I subscribed to you, been too long. I'm just proud :' )

Been a follower since the early Eggbuster days, and I see you get shouted out on Nakey Jakey's video and I was so happy and surprised, I had to come comment on both videos. I have always enjoyed your videos and I'm glad a bunch more are on their way from another great channel. o7

If we let the Pokémon own guns, maybe they wouldn't be in as many slave fights

"a mooring bollard is for tying your boat" austin: "well that's important local knowledge"

The joy I felt seeing this video come up was palpable. I like how we’re getting a picture of Kanto as a whole region along with the individual towns.

Vermillion as a color is also red

2:47 oh no, i just realized something - the shape of that mud patch is an amongus crewmate.

Thanks for another look into the employment surveyor life! I love how in-depth you go with your speculations and final report. Please keep making these videos!

3:46 Mina is from the Alola Region actually 😁 Pretty cool to meet trainers from other regions in Kanto, I think! I don't remember if there were any others though

The foreigner is Mina, she’s a trial captain from Alola. I think the trial captains are all children so she’s doubly exempt from the survey

I noticed that Vermilion City seems to be the only port town in Kanto. So the city probably makes a lot of money on imports, exports, docking fees, and all that stuff, as the only place where large vessels can stop

Interjection: Lt. Surge is the "Lightning American." Kanto is explicitly NOT America. Surge is therefore part of either an occupying force or allied nation stationed out of a local base, i.e. American service members deployed to Japan. Would he really be counted in the population of a foreign country? Does the US military get counted in the Japanese census? I doubt it.

This is completely necessary and amazing, please dont stop

Cinnabar Island is going to take you 30 seconds

So excited that there's a new one out. Which is exactly opposite the energy of the video (not in a bad way!) but it's just funny to be excited about something as mundane as employment rate also was not expecting the story you made of the city but I'm never going to forget it

Nakey Jakey told me to be here, and I’m gonna stick around. Your stuff is super interesting

3:57 She's from Alola (sun and moon) actually so yeah definitely a tourist

That "child" in the minute 4:00 is from Alola and is the host of one of the alolan trials 👌

2:57 If we are saying that the Machop is an employee, you'd have to start counting Pokémon as a part of the survey. I think a more apt metaphor would probably be a beast of burden, like an ox. In which case the old man might just be a retired old man that has a working animal on his property. Banger video, as always!

I like the conservative vermillion city headcanon, would not expect the alt right in pokemon lol

Lavender Town is gonna be an interesting one. Are possessed channelers considered employed?

Fisherman are employed they either are trainers which you allowed a trainer in cerulean or they sell the fish pokemon as food or to be kept

I love how peacefully unhinged your content is.

When you get to Celadon you should to do a restaurant review of the singular restaurant in the game.

My favorite series of yours. Thank you for your service.

Excuse me, but I don't think running around in a gang uniform is very appropriate attire for an enumerator

Welp. Nakey Jakey gave you a shoutout. Time for exponential growth. Congrats 😎

13:35 Spot on Dr. Evil impression. Nicely done.

I've always found it's so much harder to write a happy song than a sad song. So I love what you are going for with the new song at the end. It's very clever. It's positive reinforcement. At least from the clip of it

3:38 This drop shadow matches so well that I had to check to see that I didn't imagine it

"This character design is hella X and Y" he says to a character literally from Sun and Moon

I’ve never clicked on a video so quickly

not really related to the vid itself but i just have to say that i LOVE your music!!! 7 songs has become my go-to "cleaning my house" album

ooh nice additional shadow at 3:41! I always love the little details in these videos

I was recommended this Chanel by Jakey, and I binged the entire playlist 😂 top tier work my guy

Never stop making these videos! Please and thanks 😊❤

5:54 y is there a Magikarp just dying in the background 😂

Commenting before I watch in full. Thanks so much for uploading this big analysis video! Looking forward to more like this from you!

Has someone thought about how much does it cost to live in skyrim? Like the daily expences of a normal man. Is his salary enough to feed a family? All videos about the economy of skyrim talk about the whole image, trading routes in tamriel and etc. I found out that only the food costs around 30-35 septims per day(if we want a well balanced diet with meat,fish,vegetables and, of course, ale). The housing is a bjt harder to determine,because we only have the inn room cost,but let's say it is 40% cheaper-6 septims everyday. What about clothing,tools,building materials and other expences? It will be interesting to hear about that.

Big hype! I enjoyed this video and the conclusion that it's a "red-state." Very creative.

Such a bustling port town, truly a joy to see. I used to love listening to its theme song when I was a kid.

Absolutely love these videos, and was super happy to see this one was posted today. Question though, not sure if a similar issue was mentioned in the other Kanto videos as I have forgotten, but what about the people sitting in Surge's 2nd floor balcony of his gym. I'm guessing they were not considered as possible town populace given there is no direct way to survey them?

Just to clarify on the working pokemon issue- according to the ADA, a service animal who has a task they are trained for that aids the owner so they can live normally is treated as medical equipment. They can be registered as an emotional support animal if a person has the diagnosis and documentation from their doctor that the animal would aid their mental wellbeing, but that is specific to them NOT being trained to do anything besides be a companion. Animals that are trained in a task or for specific work are working animals, but they are treated as work equipment/property in the eyes of the law. Therefore, if a pokemon has a task or is trained in a specific kind of work (and if "pokemon trainer" is a job, then I would say that their pokemon count) then they are equipment/property, but if they are purely a companion, they are a pet. In both cases, not a job. However, I will say it's disturbing that there is no governing body to protect the rights and safety of the pokemon, considering all the dangerous tasks they perform and the sport they are used for... just because there is a pokemon center in practically every town and healing items to alleviate any discomfort/injury they may sustain does not make the extremely questionable activities they are made to do any better.

Austin’s channel makes me angry because I want there to be a hundred of each type of video but it’s not that old a channel yet. So I just rewatch the same videos and get very excited when new ones come out.

14:28 the nidoran line are inspired by rabbits tho!

Edit: The two guys under this comment make a fair point. I'm being improvident. I am still leaving this up, though. I never thought about Vermilion City being comparable to a military town (relatively speaking). As someone currently active duty and on shore duty (Navy), it is completely valid for older individuals (typically prior service members with 20+ years) to come back to work on the civilian side for military installations. Just bump Lt. Surge's rank to Commander and add in military base shenanigans, more rundown buildings (and degeneracy) and it's basically that.

Lieutenant Surge didn’t serve his country for you to disrespect him by calling him Mr.