SupposethatyouaretheFederalTreasurerofAustraliaandyouwanttofindoutwhether lockdowns to fight Covid-19 negatively affects employment and hence the economy. Imagine that you have data on the strictness of lockdowns and unemployment statistics for every suburb in Australia. The data shows that strict lockdowns are positively associated with unemployment levels (i.e. the tougher the lockdowns are the higher is the unemployment rate).

why the positive association in your data does not conclusively answer the question?