Originally posted by Derk2000:
Originally posted by Derk2000:
I do belive unemployment numbers come from those who are receiving unemployment benefits. If you've been on unemployment for so long, and you're no longer eligable for benefits, you're not "counted" as unemployed.



I meant to write "someone please correct me if I'm wrong" on this, as I would really like to know how unemployment is "counted."



The official unemployment numbers have nothing to do with those receiving Unemployment Assistance for the exact reason you describe -- it's not accurate.

Unemployment is counted by the census bureau form a survey of 60,000 households (the households change yearly or quarterly, can't remember) around the nation that have been deemed to be a representative cross-section of the nation.

Obviously it can lean pretty significantly to being over or under generous when it comes to the percentage.

If every autoworker in Detroit was laid off with the exception of the X number of Detroit Autoworkers in the unemployment survey, then the laying off of all those workers wouldn't affect the unemployment numbers at all.

Obviously that's not likely to happen to that extreme, but something similar could happen. Likewise, the reverse could happen.

The 60,000 household number is deemed statistically significant.

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