Giving up work though you want to also stops the “unemployed” count. I know several women who now say they are stay at home mothers of school aged children because it is less painful than saying they’ve been looking for management, PR or communications work for 2+ years.
Yeah, I had a boss like that once, real jerk.
He wouldn’t hire anybody who was unemployed. Then he got mad when one of the applications that he was looking at was for someone who was qualified, but had covered over an unemployed period.
He asked me what I thought about it, and I told him, that I thought it was a good idea to advertise that you are willing to hire folks who are at present unemployed. You would be a hope in bleak times for many folks struggling.
I got canned. Don’t ask my opinion if you don’t want it.