Reply #26: My understanding is that there are two methods of measuring [View All]

unemployment. One is based on unemployment benefits and one is a household survey.

To recieve unemployment benefits you must be actively seeking a job. So people who have given up looking don't count as unemployed (discouraged). Also, unemployment benefits only last for certain period of time. So if you've exhausted your benefits you don't count as unemployed (really discouraged). You don't recieve unemployment if you lose a part-time job, so part-timers don't count.

Under the houshold survey, you count as employed if you worked some number of hours in the previous week (I beleive it is 15 hrs). So if you worked a temp job, or your teenage child got a part-time job, etc
it counts as a "job".