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

Question

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?

In: 130

Answer 1

Welfare benefits (cash assistance) ended many years ago in most if not all states. There’s no program that picks up people who no longer qualify for unemployment benefits, so there’s no list or roster to draw from.