Number 3 is the most important. Tell me if I am wrong, but I think someone noted that once you have been looking for six months, they just drop you out of the measurements (NOT counted as unemployed).
re”Number 3 is the most important. Tell me if I am wrong, but I think someone noted that once you have been looking for six months, they just drop you out of the measurements (NOT counted as unemployed).”
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“Up until the Clinton administration, a discouraged worker was one who was willing, able and ready to work but had given up looking because there were no jobs to be had.
The Clinton administration dismissed to the non-reporting netherworld about five million discouraged workers who had been so categorized for more than a year.
As of July 2004, the less-than-a-year discouraged workers total 504,000. Adding in the netherworld takes the unemployment rate up to about 12.5%. “
http://www.freerepublic.com/perl/post?id=3611828%2C33
“When economic conditions deteriorate, greater attention is paid to persons who are without work and seeking jobs—the unemployed.
At such times, there is also greater interest in a group of persons who do not meet the official definition of unemployment but who have shown interest in labor force participation.
These individuals—referred to as “marginally attached to the labor force”—wanted and were available for work and had looked for a job sometime in the prior 12 months.
They were not counted as unemployed because they had not actively searched for work in the past 4 weeks. “
https://www.bls.gov/opub/ils/ils74abs.htm
Near bottom of page numbers for Nov 2016, Sept 2017. Oct 2017 and Nov 2017:
Persons not in the labor force (not seasonally adjusted)
Marginally attached to the labor force
1,932 1,569 1,535 1,481 -
Discouraged workers
591 421 524 469
https://www.bls.gov/news.release/empsit.a.htm
Marginally attached workers (Current Population Survey)
Persons not in the labor force who want and are available for work, and who have looked for a job sometime in the prior 12 months (or since the end of their last job if they held one within the past 12 months), but were not counted as unemployed because they had not searched for work in the 4 weeks preceding the survey. Discouraged workers are a subset of the marginally attached. (See Discouraged workers.)
https://www.bls.gov/bls/glossary.htm#M
Discouraged workers (Current Population Survey)
Persons not in the labor force who want and are available for a job and who have looked for work sometime in the past 12 months (or since the end of their last job if they held one within the past 12 months), but who are not currently looking because they believe there are no jobs available or there are none for which they would qualify.
https://www.bls.gov/bls/glossary.htm#discouraged_workers