Why do unemployment statistics only count people who want to work and not the actual number of unemployed people?

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I understand the need to exclude the young, old, disabled, and homemakers but why do unemployment statistics not include those who are simply living off of welfare and not intending to work (or on the opposite end of the spectrum, those living off of a trust fund)? Is this subset of the population just not big enough to be worth including in the statistics?

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Anonymous 0 Comments

To make matters more complex, there are also “underemployed,” those working part time but who want full time, “self employed,” who may or may not earn income this or that month, and the entire “dark economy” of undocumented people who may contribute to social and economic stresses of unemployment in a neighbourhood but are not counted anywhere.

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