> From reading how the US government defines employment/unemployment/labor force participation [1], the definitions appear to be materially the same They are t

> From reading how the US government defines employment/unemployment/labor force participation [1], the definitions appear to be materially the same They are the same. There are six different levels of unemployment which are measured and published regularly. One of them, U3, corresponds to what the UN uses and is the de facto international standard. Back in the 1990s, the BLS decided to start referring to this as the "official" unemployment rate instead of one of the other five, in order to adhere to a common standard.