Discouraged workers were removed from the headline number in the early 90’s as a way to keep that number low and help get people reelected. I believe under Clinton. Pretty sure actually but i don’t know when the revisions were initially undertaken. They may have started under Bush 1 and finalized later.
I wouldn’t be surprised if they tweaked it more during Clinton. I thought in the 60s it was changed *from* the way it was measured during the Great Depression to how it is now.
Either way it’s obvious from U6 to U3 the gov’t estimates to their advantage.
Just like good old “core inflation”, what a joke that is; fuel is 4.00$gal but a new laptop is still 500 bucks!