My country uses a similar definition. I graduated right in middle of 2008 crisis and for various reasons never found a full time job (all my work was owning my

My country uses a similar definition. I graduated right in middle of 2008 crisis and for various reasons never found a full time job (all my work was owning my own contracting companies or startups) so for example my government (Brazil) doesn't count me as unemployed and doesn't let me have some benefits. But many employers instead see my empty employment registry (in Brazil theoretically everyone has one) to interpret I never worked so they refuse to hire me in first place because I might lack experience. Interviews don't go much better, for example Amazon interview all of the interviewers asked questions about conflict resolution in large teams I worked with in the past. I suspect the reason I was not hired was this question, since was the only one I couldn't answer at all.