Perhaps you're only referring to the headline unemployment figure that typically is reported on? The exclusion of people who are no longer looking for work is i

Perhaps you're only referring to the headline unemployment figure that typically is reported on? The exclusion of people who are no longer looking for work is intentional: they are no longer part of the workforce, for a variety of reasons (there is no need to include someone who lives in the wilderness on passive income or savings as "unemployed"). But the BLS also provides a detailed breakdown of unemployment[1], including 6 alternate unemployment measures[2]. These alternate measures not only include "discouraged workers"[3][4] but you can also find numbers for people who are "marginally connected to the workforce" and people who have to work more than one full or part-time job[5]. [1] http://www.bls.gov/news.release/empsit.toc.htm http://www.bls.gov/news.release/empsit.toc.htm [2] http://www.bls.gov/webapps/legacy/cpsatab15.htm http://www.bls.gov/webapps/legacy/cpsatab15.htm [3] http://www.bls.gov/news.release/empsit.t15.htm http://www.bls.gov/news.release/empsit.t15.htm [4] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Discouraged_worker https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Discouraged_worker [5] http://www.bls.gov/news.release/empsit.t16.htm http://www.bls.gov/news.release/empsit.t16.htm edit: wow - a lot of people posted essentially the same thing.