There are an awful lot of potential workers out there content with their with disability payments, even though there certainly are areas they could work in. There are also plenty with both disability who do work on the side.
One guy I know of had I believe full disability (for a “bad back”), and, get this, ran and worked regularly in his own tree service. He also had a small shop in his barn and did tire work for a lot of the farmers local to him - yes, we are talking big tires. He would take a check for the tire work, but never provided any kind of receipt. For the tree work I don’t know - I never had him do any tree work for me. I’d guess it was all “off the record” for him.)
How are these people figured in?
People have misconception of how the unemployment rate is determined. It is, in fact, the result of a survey, nothing more.
“There are about 60,000 eligible households in the sample for this survey. This translates into approximately 110,000 individuals each month, a large sample compared to public opinion surveys, which usually cover fewer than 2,000 people. The CPS sample is selected so as to be representative of the entire population of the United States”