# Please explain the (US) "Jobless Rate"

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-explain-the-us-jobless-rate/657346>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [May 2, 2013, 7:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-explain-the-us-jobless-rate/657346 "2013-05-02T19:42:04Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 2

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![UncleFred](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/f0a364/32.png) [@UncleFred](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UncleFred)\
**Post date:** [May 3, 2013, 9:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-explain-the-us-jobless-rate/657346/21 "2013-05-03T21:32:30Z")

</div>

> [@Voyager](#):
>
> Can you point us to an example? I’ve often heard them mentioned in the same report, though they come out at different times, but I’ve never heard them linked.

I hear it periodically on WBZ radio here in the Boston MA area.

Since its radio I can’t provide a link, but here’s my best attemp to reconstruct what (I believe) the reporter said;

“Numbers on the Jobless Rate were reported today. First time applications for unemployment benefits were down 18,000 to 324,000, a five-year low.”

Now I will grant that those are two separate sentences, and technically they are not claiming to be the same thing, but its very confusing to do it this way.

I will listen more exactly next time.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![pinqy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/a3d4f5/32.png) [@pinqy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pinqy)\
**Post date:** [May 6, 2013, 12:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-explain-the-us-jobless-rate/657346/22 "2013-05-06T12:11:04Z")

</div>

> [@mazinger\_z](#):
>
> Apologies, let me restate in a different way what I stated already to be more clear: the headline unemployment statistic counts the unemployed worker as part of the unemployment statistics until 12 months have passed.

As long as someone is actively looking for wrok, they are classified as unemployed. Until 2011, the maximum answer accepted was 2 years (anything higher was recorded as 2 years so in effect it was "2 or more years). In Jan 2011 the survey was changed so that any answer up to 5 years is now accepted. That changed nothing in the Labor Force numbers except mean duration of unemployment.

If someone has not looked for work in the previous 4 weeks, but wants to work and could have accepted a job and they looked sometime in the previous 12 months, then they’re classified as Marginally Attached, and if the specific reason is belief they wouldn’t be hired due to no jobs available, lack of skills/education, or discrimination, then the person is Discouraged.

So if someone hasn’t looked in over a year then they’re simply “Not in the Labor Force.”

[Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-explain-the-us-jobless-rate/657346.md?page=1)