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

So I’ll give you part of it. People who aren’t looking for work are taken out of the equation because there are many reasons they may not want jobs. Stay at home parents, early retirement, living of investments, taken care of a family member. So it’s difficult to put them in the number. Some people work until 70 or 80 but we don’t include all 65+ year Olds as unemployed. This is part of the answer. I’ve seen the whole break down but can’t seem to find it.

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