> The point of obituaries is not to give any sense of demographic health. And the point of unemployment statistics is not to give any sense of economic equalit

> The point of obituaries is not to give any sense of demographic health. And the point of unemployment statistics is not to give any sense of economic equality. > Sure, but the issue is that the reporting treats the metric as meaningfully representative of accessibility of employment Because it is a pretty good proxy for this. When unemployment is high, wages tend to stagnate and it takes longer on average for people to find new employment. When unemployment is low, wages go up and people tend to have a much easier time finding a job quickly. There is a remarkable correlation between people seeking unemployment benefits and accessibility of employment. Sure there are people who would rather take a low paying job than the benefits, but there have always been such people, and the proportion doesn't quickly change, so within reason you can compare the situation at time A with the situation at time B based on the metric which is measured the same way at both times and get a pretty good sense of what the difference is. It is not the end all be all, but nothing ever could be. It is one of countless metrics, all of which have their appropriate uses.