>What counts as unemployed in the US?
<http://www.bls.gov/cps/cps_htgm.htm>
>Who is counted as unemployed?
>
>Persons are classified as unemployed if they do not have a job, have
>actively looked for work in the prior 4 weeks, and are currently
>available for work. Actively looking for work may consist of any of
>the following activities:
>
>*Contacting:
> An employer directly or having a job interview;
> A public or private employment agency;
> Friends or relatives;
> A school or university employment center;
>*Sending out resumes or filling out applications;
>*Placing or answering advertisements;
>*Checking union or professional registers; or
>*Some other means of active job search.
>
>Passive methods of jobsearch do not result in jobseekers actually
>contacting potential employers, and therefore are not acceptable for
>classifying persons as unemployed. These would include such things
>as attending a job training program or course or merely reading the
>want ads.
>
>Workers expecting to be recalled from layoff are counted as
>unemployed, whether or not they have engaged in a specific
>jobseeking activity. But, in all other cases, the individual must be
>actively engaged in some job search activity and available for work
>(except for temporary illness).
------
>In the UK? It would be nice if the OECD
>imposed the same standards on everyone, but I would bet that , once again,
>the US is out there in its own universe thinking its standards are the
>world's.
Not exactly. The BLS periodically publishes estimates of foreign employment and unemployment figures using U.S. concepts. The OECD publishes harmonized stats too.
Doug