re: #678 Targetpractice, Worst of Both Worlds

The new talking point is that the “real” unemployment number is in the double digits, but the administration isn’t counting people who’ve stopped looking in order to make the numbers look “good.”

Problem with that talking point is that the White House is using the same formulas as previous administrations to count unemployment, hence if Obama’s guilty of ignoring people not seeking employment, then so is Bush.

How do you count people who have given up the job search and stopped looking? I thought unemployment was counted by unemployment claims? People whose benefits have run out but who haven’t found new jobs, what method is there for counting them?