The Fact
Under the Current Population Survey, a person generally must have no job, be available for work, and have made a specific active effort to find work within the previous four weeks to be classified as unemployed. A person can want a job and still be classified as outside the labor force.
What This Means
The official unemployment rate does not answer the everyday-language question “How many people need or want work?” It answers a narrower statistical question with defined eligibility rules.
Sources
- U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, CPS Concepts and Definitions: https://www.bls.gov/cps/definitions.htm